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Serial nouns in Finnish

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2017

Solveiga Armoskaite  and
Päivi Koskinen
Solveiga Armoskaite*
Affiliation:
University of Rochester
Päivi Koskinen*
Affiliation:
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
*
[email protected]
[email protected]
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Abstract

We argue for the existence of nominal serialization based on our analysis of a Finnish construction consisting of a syntactically fixed sequence in which a prosaic noun is followed by an ideophonic noun. A database compiled from a range of diverse sources provides material for the analysis. Muysken and Veenstra's (2006) criteria for the serialization of verbs are adapted and applied to our analysis of these ideophonic constructions as involving the serialization of nouns. We provide evidence that the noun–noun sequence is nested within a possessive structure that behaves as a syntactic atom, exhibits idiosyncratic phonology, and encodes speaker perspective.

Résumé

Nous soutenons l'existence d'une sérialisation nominale, en nous basant sur notre analyse d'une construction finlandaise qui consiste en une séquence syntaxiquement fixe où un nom prosaïque est suivi d'un nom idéophonique. Une base de données construite à partir d'un éventail de sources diverses fournit le matériel pour l'analyse. Nous adaptons les critères proposés pour la sérialisation des verbes par Muysken et Veenstra (2006), et les adaptons à notre analyse de ces constructions idéophoniques qui constituent, selon nous, une sérialisation nominale. Nous fournissons des preuves que la séquence des deux nominaux constituent une structure possessive qui se comporte comme un atome syntaxique, qui présente une phonologie idiosyncratique et qui encode la perspective du locuteur.

Keywords

arbitrarinessevaluativesideophonesnominal serializationarbitraireévaluativesidéophonessérialisation nominale
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 62 , Issue 2: Structuring sensory imagery: Ideophones across languages and cultures/La structuration de l'imagerie sensorielle : les idéophones dans diverses langues et cultures , June 2017 , pp. 280 - 313
Copyright
© Canadian Linguistic Association/Association canadienne de linguistique 2017 

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Footnotes

For stimulating discussion on the topic of this paper, we are grateful to the participants in the Structuring Sensory Imagery workshop, which took place at the University of Rochester on May 2, 2014. We also thank our anonymous reviewer for stimulating questions. Last but not least, we thank Julie Sedivy for editorial finesse. The first author acknowledges the financial support of the Humanities Project at the University of Rochester. All errors are our own.

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