Integrating syntax and pragmatics : word order and transitivity, variations in tunumiisut

• Published in: International Journal of American Linguistics
• Main Authors: Tersis, Nicole, Carter-Thomas, Shirley
• Other Authors: Structure et Dynamique des Langues (SeDyL), Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (Inalco)-Institut de recherche pour le développement IRD : UR135-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Département Langues et Sciences Humaines (IMT-BS - LSH), Télécom Ecole de Management (TEM)-Institut Mines-Télécom Paris (IMT)-Institut Mines-Télécom Business School (IMT-BS), Institut Mines-Télécom Paris (IMT), Lattice - Langues, Textes, Traitements informatiques, Cognition - UMR 8094 (Lattice), Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3-Université Sorbonne Paris Cité (USPC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Département Littératures et langage - ENS Paris (LILA), École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2005
• Subjects: Pragmatics; Word order; Transitivity; Inuit; Information structure; East Greenlandic; [SHS.LANGUE]Humanities and Social Sciences/Linguistics; greenlandic; inuit
• Online Access: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00724694; https://doi.org/10.1086/501248

International audience The aim of this article is to investigate word order variations and transitivity choices in Inuit by examining the interplay and respective influence of morpho-syntactic, semantic and pragmatic features on the surface ordering of clausal constituents. The analysis of a modern-day Inuit text in East Greenlandic (Tunumiisut) shows that the pertinence of an SOV order requires certain qualifications because of the limited representation of lexical nominal groups. However, once these adjustments have been taken into account, both transitivity and surface ordering can be seen to have an important impact on pragmatic topic comment reordering principles. The theoretical flexibility commonly attributed to constituent ordering in Inuit appears to be reserved primarily for signaling particular pragmatic arrangements.