The ongoing eclipse of possessive suffixes in North Saami
North Saami is replacing the use of possessive suffixes on nouns with a morphologically simpler analytic construction. Our data (>2K examples culled from >.5M words) track this change through three generations, covering parameters of semantics, syntax and geography. Intense contact pressure on...
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Language: | English |
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/dia.33.3.02jan http://www.jbe-platform.com/deliver/fulltext/dia.33.3.02jan.pdf |
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crjohnbenjaminsp:10.1075/dia.33.3.02jan 2024-06-09T07:49:18+00:00 The ongoing eclipse of possessive suffixes in North Saami A case study in reduction of morphological complexity Janda, Laura A. Antonsen, Lene 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/dia.33.3.02jan http://www.jbe-platform.com/deliver/fulltext/dia.33.3.02jan.pdf en eng John Benjamins Publishing Company Diachronica volume 33, issue 3, page 330-366 ISSN 0176-4225 1569-9714 journal-article 2016 crjohnbenjaminsp https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.33.3.02jan 2024-05-15T13:26:39Z North Saami is replacing the use of possessive suffixes on nouns with a morphologically simpler analytic construction. Our data (>2K examples culled from >.5M words) track this change through three generations, covering parameters of semantics, syntax and geography. Intense contact pressure on this minority language probably promotes morphological simplification, yielding an advantage for the innovative construction. The innovative construction is additionally advantaged because it has a wider syntactic and semantic range and is indispensable, whereas its competitor can always be replaced. The one environment where the possessive suffix is most strongly retained even in the youngest generation is in the Nominative singular case, and here we find evidence that the possessive suffix is being reinterpreted as a Vocative case marker. Article in Journal/Newspaper saami John Benjamins Publishing Company Diachronica 33 3 330 366 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
John Benjamins Publishing Company |
op_collection_id |
crjohnbenjaminsp |
language |
English |
description |
North Saami is replacing the use of possessive suffixes on nouns with a morphologically simpler analytic construction. Our data (>2K examples culled from >.5M words) track this change through three generations, covering parameters of semantics, syntax and geography. Intense contact pressure on this minority language probably promotes morphological simplification, yielding an advantage for the innovative construction. The innovative construction is additionally advantaged because it has a wider syntactic and semantic range and is indispensable, whereas its competitor can always be replaced. The one environment where the possessive suffix is most strongly retained even in the youngest generation is in the Nominative singular case, and here we find evidence that the possessive suffix is being reinterpreted as a Vocative case marker. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Janda, Laura A. Antonsen, Lene |
spellingShingle |
Janda, Laura A. Antonsen, Lene The ongoing eclipse of possessive suffixes in North Saami |
author_facet |
Janda, Laura A. Antonsen, Lene |
author_sort |
Janda, Laura A. |
title |
The ongoing eclipse of possessive suffixes in North Saami |
title_short |
The ongoing eclipse of possessive suffixes in North Saami |
title_full |
The ongoing eclipse of possessive suffixes in North Saami |
title_fullStr |
The ongoing eclipse of possessive suffixes in North Saami |
title_full_unstemmed |
The ongoing eclipse of possessive suffixes in North Saami |
title_sort |
ongoing eclipse of possessive suffixes in north saami |
publisher |
John Benjamins Publishing Company |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/dia.33.3.02jan http://www.jbe-platform.com/deliver/fulltext/dia.33.3.02jan.pdf |
genre |
saami |
genre_facet |
saami |
op_source |
Diachronica volume 33, issue 3, page 330-366 ISSN 0176-4225 1569-9714 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.33.3.02jan |
container_title |
Diachronica |
container_volume |
33 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
330 |
op_container_end_page |
366 |
_version_ |
1801381712116056064 |