WORD

• Main Authors: Jan Blommaert, Chds Bulcaen (eds, Marianne Mithun, Mariannz Mithun
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: eskimo*; Yup'ik
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.692.888; http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/faculty/mithun/pdfs/1998+Word.pdf

We know that the size and content of words varies widely across languages; what can be said in a single word in some languages can be expressed only in a multiword sentence in others. The word payugqetullrullinikiit, for exarrryle, used in a Central Alaskan Yup'ik (Eskimo) conversation, was translated into English as 'they apparently used to bring food to her'. Some of the differences we find among languages in the content of words reflect differences in the ideas that are coded as basic concepts. The Yup'ik word above is based on the verbrcotpayug-'to take food over to a friend, relative, or neighbor'. The root does not contain segments meaning 'food ' or 'relative ' it simply denotes a recognizable activity that constitutes a unitary cultural concept for speakers. Other cross-linguistic differences in the amount of information packaged in words are the result of differences in word structure. In poiysynthetic languages like Yup'ik, words may have elaborate structures. The word above consists of seven meaningful p arts'. payug-qe-tu-Ilru-llini-k-iit. Folowing the root are a suffix-qe- 'time after time', a suffix-lrr- 'customarily', a suffix-llru- for past tense, a suffrx Jlini- 'apparently', a suffix-ft- for participial mood, and finally a pronominal suffix-iit 'rheylher '.'lhe variation we find in the amount of information carried by words cross-linguistically raises some fundamental questions. Ffust, are utterances like pay ugqetullrullinikiit really single words? Second, if they are, do such differences in the packaging of information matter?