Correlations of valency alternations and morphological types: a typological perspective

• Autores: Pingping Ge, Bernard Comrie
• Localización: Lingua: International review of general linguistics, ISSN 0024-3841, Nº 273, 2022
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This article explores the connection between expression of valency alternations and the overall morphological typology of a language from a cross-linguistic perspective. On the basis of a typological survey of empirical data in 40 geographically and genealogically diverse languages, it finds two universal tendencies relating to the scale of morphological types from most to least bound: fusional – agglutinative – isolating. First, the compatibility of morphological techniques used to express valency alternations does not extend further left than the overall morphological typology of the language. Second, it may extend further right, with extensive attestation of this possibility. The morphological expression of valency alternations is thus constrained by the overall morphology of the language, but tends to be pushed further towards the right.