Acta Linguistica Hungarica
Volume/Issue:
Volume 62: Issue 4
On the syntactic category of Akan compounds A product-oriented perspective
Author: Clement Kwamina Insaidoo Appah1
View More View Less
  • 1 University of Ghana, Ghana
Pages:
361–394
Online Publication Date:
Dec 2015
Publication Date:
01 Dec 2015
Article Category:
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1556/064.2015.62.4.1
Keywords:
Akan; compounds; Construction Morphology; constructional schema; holistic properties
Full access

In accounting for the properties of morphological constructions, one may adopt a source-oriented view where every property of the whole emanates from the parts or a product-oriented view where the whole may have properties that do not come from the parts. Such properties are called holistic constructional properties. Studies on Akan compounds have been invariably source-oriented, assuming that every property in a compound, including the syntactic category, has to come from its constituents. I show that compounding in Akan is blind to the syntactic category of the constituents. Thus, notwithstanding the syntactic category of the constituents the Akan compound is invariably nominal. This paper, therefore, provides evidence of holistic properties of morphological constructions in the form of the syntactic category of Akan compounds. I also present a Construction Morphology modelling of the syntactic category of the Akan compound as a holistic constructional property which is inherited from a constructional meta-schema that is pre-specified to be nominal. Finally, I posit and exemplify four schemas which inherit the category N from the meta-schema but differ in terms of the presence and position of a head constituent.

  • Abakah, Emmanuel Nicholas . 2000. A closer look at downstep in Akan. Afrika und Übersee 83. 253–275.

  • Abakah, Emmanuel Nicholas . 2004. The segmental and tone melodies of Akan. Doctoral dissertation. Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Abakah, Emmanuel Nicholas . 2006. The tonology of compounds in Akan. Languages and Linguistics 17. 1–33.

  • Allen, Margaret R. 1978. Morphological investigations. Doctoral dissertation. University of Connecticut.

  • Anderson, Jonathan C. 2013. Verb-internal compound formation in Akan. Journal of West African languages 60. 89–104.

  • Anyidoho, Akosua . 1990. On tone in Akan compound nouns. Paper presented at the the 19th West African Languages Congress, University of Ghana, Legon.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Appah, Clement Kwamina Insaidoo . 2013a. The case against A-N compounding in Akan. Journal of West African languages 40. 73–87.

  • Appah, Clement Kwamina Insaidoo . 2013b. Construction morphology: Issues in Akan complex nominal morphology. Doctoral dissertation. Lancaster University.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Aronoff, Mark . 1976. Word-formation in generative grammar (Linguistic Inquiry Monographs 1). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

  • Balmer, William Tumbull and F. C. F. Grant. 1929. A grammar of the Fante-Akan language. London: Atlantis Press.

  • Bauer, Laurie . 2008. Dvandva. Word Structure 1. 1–20.

  • Bauer, Laurie . 2009. Typology of compounds. In Lieber & Štekauer (2009, 343–356).

  • Bauer, Laurie . 2010. The typology of exocentric compounds. In Scalise & Vogel (2010, 167–175).

  • Boadi, Lawrence A. 1966. The syntax of the Twi verb. Doctoral dissertation. SOAS, University of London.

  • Booij, Geert . 2007. Construction morphology and the lexicon. In F. Montermini, G. Boyé and N. Hathout (eds.) Selected proceedings of the 5th Décembrettes: Morphology in Toulouse. Somerville: Cascadilla Proceedings Project. 34–44.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Booij, Geert . 2009. Lexical integrity as a formal universal: A constructionist view. In S. Scalise, E. Magni and A. Bisetto (eds.) Universals of language today. Dordrecht: Springer. 83–100.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Booij, Geert . 2010a. Construction morphology. Language and Linguistics Compass 4. 543–555.

  • Booij, Geert . 2010b. Construction morphology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  • Booij, Geert . 2012a. Construction morphology, a brief introduction. Morphology 22. 343–346.

  • Booij, Geert . 2012b. Inheritance and Construction Morphology. Paper presented at the workshop on ‘Default Inheritance’, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 21–22 May 2012.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Bresnan, Joan W. and Sam A. Mchombo. 1995. The lexical integrity principle: Evidence from Bantu. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 13. 181–254.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Bybee, Joan L. and Carol Lynn Moder. 1983. Morphological classes as natural categories. Language 59. 251–270.

  • Bybee, Joan L. and Dan Isaac Slobin. 1982. Rules and schemas in the development and use of the English past tense. Language 58. 265–289.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Ceccagno, Antonella and Bianca Basciano. 2009. Sino-Tibetan: Mandarin Chinese. In Lieber & Štekauer (2009, 478–490).

  • Ceccagno, Antonella and Sergio Scalise. 2006. Classification, structure and headedness of Chinese compounds. Lingue e linguaggio 2. 233–260.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Chomsky, Noam . 1970. Remarks on nominalization. In R. A. Jacobs and P. S. Rosenbaum (eds.) Readings in English transformational grammar. Waltham: Ginn. 184–221.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Christaller, Johannes Gottlieb . 1875. A grammar of the Asante and Fante language called Tshi (Chwee, Twi) based on the Akuapem dialect with reference to the other (Akan and Fante) dialects. Basel: Basel Evangelical Missionary Society.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Christaller, Johannes Gottlieb . 1933. Dictionary of the Asante and Fante Language called Tshi (Chwee, Twi): With a grammatical introduction and appendices on the geography of the Gold Coast and other subjects. Basel: Basel Evangelical Missionary Society.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Copestake, Ann . 1993. The representation of lexical semantic information. Doctoral dissertation. University of Sussex.

  • Dolphyne, Florence Abena . 1988. The Akan (Twi-Fante) language: Its sound systems and tonal structure. Accra: Ghana Universities Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Downing, Pamela . 1977. On the creation and use of English compound nouns. Language 53. 810–842.

  • Dressler, Wolfgang U. 2006. Compound types. In G. Libben and G. Jarema (eds.) The representation and processing of compound words. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 23–44.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Fradin, Bernard . 2009. IE, Romance: French. In Lieber & Štekauer (2009, 417–435).

  • Goldberg, Adele E. 1995. Constructions: A construction grammar approach to argument structure. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Goldberg, Adele E. 2006. Constructions at work: The nature of generalization in language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  • Haspelmath, Martin . 1989. Schemas in Hausa plural formation: Product-orientation and motivation vs. source-orientation and generation. Buffalo Working Papers in Linguistics 89. 32–74.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Jackendoff, Ray . 2009. Compounding in the parallel architecture and conceptual semantics. In Lieber & Štekauer (2009, 105–128).

  • Katamba, Francis and John T. Stonham. 2006. Morphology. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

  • Köpcke, Klaus-Michael . 1988. Schemas in German plural formation. Lingua 74. 303–335.

  • Lees, Robert B. 1960. The grammar of English nominalizations. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

  • Lieber, Rochelle . 1980. On the organization of the lexicon. Doctoral dissertation. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

  • Lieber, Rochelle . 1983. Argument linking and compounding in English. Linguistic Inquiry 14. 251–86.

  • Lieber, Rochelle . 1989. On percolation. In G. Booij and J. van Marle (eds.) Yearbook of morphology 1989. Dordrecht: Foris. 95–138.

  • Lieber, Rochelle . 1992. Deconstructing morphology: Word formation in syntactic theory. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

  • Lieber, Rochelle . 2004. Morphology and lexical semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  • Lieber, Rochelle and Sergio Scalise. 2007. The Lexical Integrity Hypothesis in a new theoretical universe. In G. Booij, L. Ducceschi, B. Fradin, E. Guevara, A. Ralli and S. Scalise (eds.) On-line proceedings of the Fifth Mediterranean Morphology Meeting (MMM5), Fréjus 15–18 September 2005. Bologna: University of Bologna. 1–24.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Lieber, Rochelle and Pavol Štekauer (eds.). 2009. The Oxford handbook of compounding. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  • Malouf, Robert . 2000a. Mixed categories in the hierarchical lexicon. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.

  • Malouf, Robert . 2000b. Verbal gerunds as mixed categories in head-driven phrase structure grammar. In R. D. Borsley (ed.) The nature and function of syntactic categories. New York: Academic Press. 133–166.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Marfo, Charles Ofosu . 2004. On tone and segmental processes in Akan phrasal words: A prosodic account. Linguistik online 18. 93–110.

  • Michaelis, Laura A. and Knud Lambrecht. 1996. Toward a construction-based theory of language function: The case of nominal extraposition. Language 72. 215–247.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Obeng, Samuel Gyasi . 2009. Akan deverbal nouns. In S. G. Obeng (ed.) Topics in descriptive and African linguistics: Essays in honor of distinguished professor Paul Newman. München: LINCOM Europa. 96–110.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Osam, E. Kweku . 1994. Aspects of Akan grammar: A functional perspective. Doctoral dissertation. University of Oregon.

  • Osam, E. Kweku . 1999. Adjectives in Akan. Afrika und Übersee 82. 189–211.

  • Osam, E. Kweku . 2004. The Trondheim lectures. An introduction to the structure of Akan: Its verbal and multiverbal systems. Accra: Department of Lenguistics, Legon.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Osam, E. Kweku . 2008. Akan as an aspectual language. In F. K. Ameka and M. E. K. Dakubu (eds.) Aspect and modality in Kwa languages. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 69–90.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Pepper, Steve . 2010. Nominal compounding in Nizaa – A cognitive perspective. Doctoral dissertation. SOAS, University of London.

  • Renner, Vincent . 2008. On the semantics of English coordinate compounds. English Studies 89. 606–613.

  • Roeper, Thomas and Muffy E. A. Siegel. 1978. A lexical transformation for verbal compounds. Linguistic Inquiry 9. 199–260.

  • Rumelhart, David E. 1980. Schemata: The building blocks of cognition. In R. J. Spiro, B. C. Bruce and W. F. Brewer (eds.) Theoretical issues in reading comprehension: Perspectives from cognitive psychology, linguistics, artificial intelligence, and education. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. 33–58.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Rumelhart, David E. and James L. McClelland. 1986. On learning the past tense of English verbs. In R. McClelland (ed.) Parallel distributed processing: Explorations in the microstructure of cognition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 217–271.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Saah, Kofi K. 2004. A survey of Akan adverbs and adverbials. Journal of West African languages 31. 47–71.

  • Scalise, Sergio . 1984. Generative morphology. Dordrecht: Foris.

  • Scalise, Sergio . 1988. The notion of ‘head’ in morphology. In G. Booij and J. van Marle (eds.) Yearbook of morphology 1988. Dordrecht: Foris. 229–45.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Scalise, Sergio . 1992. Compounding in Italian. Rivista di Linguistica 4. 175–98.

  • Scalise, Sergio and Antonio Fábregas. 2010. The head in compounding. In Scalise & Vogel (2010, 109–125).

  • Scalise, Sergio and Emiliano Raúl Guevara. 2006. Exocentric compounding in a typological framework. Lingue e linguaggio 2. 185–206.

  • Scalise, Sergio and Irene Vogel (eds.). 2010. Cross-disciplinary issues in compounding. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

  • Selkirk, Elisabeth . 1982. The syntax of words. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

  • Spencer, Andrew . 2011. What’s in a compound? Journal of Linguistics 47. 481–507.

  • Taylor, John . 2002. Near synonyms as coextensive categories: ‘High’ and ‘tall’ revisited. Language Sciences 25. 263–84.

  • Williams, Edwin . 1981. On the notions “lexically related” and “head of a word”. Linguistic Inquiry 12. 245–274.

  • Zager, David . 1981. On orientation or, constraining false analogy. Linguistics 19. 1107–1131.

Cover Acta Linguistica Hungarica
Acta Linguistica Hungarica
Print ISSN:
1216-8076
Online ISSN:
1588-2624

The author instruction is available in PDF.

Please, download the file from HERE

Editors

Editor(s)-in-Chief: Katalin É. Kiss,
Ferenc Kiefer

Editor: Éva Dékány

Technical Editor: Zoltán G. Kiss

Review Editor: Beáta Gyuris

Editorial Board

  • Anne Abeillé
  • Željko Bošković
  • Marcel den Dikken
  • Hans-Martin Gärtner
  • Elly van Gelderen
  • Anders Holmberg
  • Katarzyna Jaszczolt
  • István Kenesei
  • Anikó Lipták
  • Katalin Mády
  • Gereon Müller
  • Csaba Pléh
  • Giampaolo Salvi
  • Irina Sekerina
  • Péter Siptár
  • Gregory Stump
  • Peter Svenonius
  • Anne Tamm
  • Akira Watanabe
  • Jeroen van de Weijer

Acta Linguistica Academica
Address: Benczúr u. 33. HU–1068 Budapest, Hungary
Phone: (+36 1) 351 0413; (+36 1) 321 4830 ext. 154
Fax: (36 1) 322 9297
E-mail: ala@nytud.mta.hu

Indexing and Abstracting Services:

  • Arts and Humanities Citation Index
  • Bibliographie Linguistique/Linguistic Bibliography
  • International Bibliographies IBZ and IBR
  • Linguistics Abstracts
  • Linguistics and Language Behaviour Abstracts
  • MLA International Bibliography
  • SCOPUS
  • Social Science Citation Index
  • LinguisList

 

Acta Linguistica Hungarica
Language English
Size  
Year of
Foundation		 1951
Publication
Programme		 changed title
Volumes
per Year		  
Issues
per Year		  
Founder Magyar Tudományos Akadémia  
Founder's
Address		 H-1051 Budapest, Hungary, Széchenyi István tér 9.
Publisher Akadémiai Kiadó
Publisher's
Address		 H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245.
Responsible
Publisher		 Chief Executive Officer, Akadémiai Kiadó
ISSN 1216-8076 (Print)
ISSN 1588-2624 (Online)

Monthly Content Usage

Abstract Views Full Text Views PDF Downloads
Dec 2021 0 39 40
Jan 2022 0 6 4
Feb 2022 0 13 15
Mar 2022 0 13 9
Apr 2022 0 12 7
May 2022 0 9 6
Jun 2022 0 0 0