Polysynthetic language
Polysynthetic languages are highly synthetic languages, i.e. languages in which words are composed of many morphemes.
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Definition
The degree of synthesis refers to the morpheme-to-word ratio. Languages with more than one morpheme per word are synthetic. Polysynthetic languages lie at the extreme end of synthesis continuum with a very high number of morphemes per word (at the other extreme are isolating languages with only one morpheme per word).
These highly synthetic languages often have very long words that correspond to complete sentences in less synthetic languages.
Incorporation (primarily noun incorporation) has been an issue that has historically been confused with polysynthesis and also used a criteria for its definition. Incorporation refers to the phenomenon where lexical morphemes (or lexemes) are combined together to form a single word. Not all polysynthetic languages are incorporating, and not all incorporating languages are polysynthetic.
Origin of term
The term "polysynthesis" was probably first used in a linguist sense by Peter Duponceau (a.k.a. Pierre Du Ponceau) in 1819 as a term to describe American languages.
- "Three principals results have forcibly struck my mind... They are the following:
- 1. That the American languages in general are rich in grammatical forms, and that in their complicated construction construction, the greatest order, method and regularity prevail
- 2. That these complicated forms, which I call polysynthesis, appear to exist in all those languages, from Greenland to Cape Horn.
- 3. That these forms appear to differ essentially from those of the ancient and modern languages of the old hemisphere." (Duponceau 1819:xxii-xxiii)
- "The manner in which words are compounded in that particular mode of speech, the great number and variety of ideas which it has the power of expressing in one single word; particularly by means of the verbs; all these stamp its character for abundance, strength, and comprehensiveness of expression, in such a manner, that those accidents must be considered as included in the general descriptive term polysynthetic." (Duponceau 1819:xxvii)
- "I have explained elsewhere what I mean by a polysynthetic or syntactic construction of language.... It is that in which the greatest number of ideas are comprised in the least number of words. This is done principally in two ways. 1. By a mode of compounding locutions which is not confined to joining two words together, as in the Greek, or varying the inflection ar termination of a radical word as in the most European languages, but by interweaving together the most significant sounds or syllables of each simple word, so as to form a compound that wil awaken in the mind at once all the ideas singly expressed by the words from which they are taken. 2. By an analogous combination of various parts of speech, particularly by means of the verb, so that its various forms and inflections will express not only the principal action, but the greatest possible number of the moral ideas and physical objects connected with it, and will combine itself to the greatest extent with those conceptions which are the subject of other parts of speech, and in other languages require to be expressed by separate and distinct words.... Their most remarkable external appearance is that of long polysyllabic words, which being compounded in the manner I have stated, express much at once." (Duponceau 1819:xxx-xxxi)
The terms synthetic and polysynthetic were first used in the modern sense by Edward Sapir in the 1920s.
Examples
Chukchi
Examples of polysynthetic languages include Inuktitut, Mohawk, Classical Ainu, Central Siberian Yupik, Cherokee, Sora, Chukchi and numerous other languages of North America and Siberia.
An example from Chukchi, a polysynthetic, incorporating, and agglutinating language:
Təmeyŋəlevtəpəγtərkən.
tə-meyŋə-levtə-pəγt-ərkən
1.SG.SUBJ-great-head-ache-IMP
'I have a fierce headache.' (Skorik 1961: 102)
Təmeyŋəlevtəpəγtərkən has a 5:1 morpheme-to-word ratio with 3 incorporated lexical morphemes (meyŋə 'great', levtə 'head', pəγt 'ache').
Classical Ainu
From Classical Ainu, another polysynthetic, incorporating, and agglutinating language:
| Usaopuspe aejajkotujmasiramsujpa. | |
| usa-opuspe | a-e-jaj-ko-tujma-si-ram-suj-pa |
| various-rumors | I-APL-REFL-far-REFL-heart-sway-ITER |
| 'I keep swaying my heart afar and toward myself over various rumors.' (i.e., I wonder about various rumors.) | |
| <cite>(Shibatani 1990: 72) | |
The word aaejajkotujmasiramsujpa has a total of 9 morphemes with 2 lexical morphemes (tujma 'far', ram 'heart') incorporated into the verb.
Western Greenlandic
Languages with a high degree of synthesis but without being incorporating include Central Siberian Yupik and Western Greenlandic.
An example from Western Greenlandic, a polysynthetic & agglutinating (but not incorporating) language (Fortescue 1983:97; cited in Evans & Sasse 2002):
Aliikusersuillammassuaanerartassagaluarpaalli.
aliiku-sersu-i-llammas-sua-a-nerar-ta-ssa-galuar-paal-li
entertainment-provide-SEMITRANS-one.good.at-COP-say.that-REP-FUT-sure.but-3plSUBJ/3sgOBJ-but
'However, they will say that he is a great entertainer, but ...'
(12:1 ratio)
Northwest Caucasian
The Northwest Caucasian languages are extremely polysynthetic with regard to their verbs; the verb carries agreement for virtually every noun or pronoun argument in the sentence. A small degree of incorporation may also be involved.
An example from Ubykh:
aχʲazbatʂʾaʁawdətʷaajlafaqʾajtʾmadaχ!
a-χʲa-z-batʂʾa-ʁa-w-də-tʷ-aaj-la-fa-qʾa-jtʾ-ma-da-χ
them-BEN-me-under-ABL-you-CAUS-take-ITER-all-POT-PAST-IMPF-NEG-COND-OPT
'If only you had not been able to make him take it all out from under me again for them!'
This one word contains 16 explicit morphemes, even without the incorporated nouns typical of many Ubykh verbs.
Distribution of polysynthetic languages
Polysynthetic languages have arisen in many places around the world. Some families that are stereotypically polysynthetic (whether or not they are incorporating as well) include the Bantu languages of Africa, the Athabaskan languages and Eskimo-Aleut languages of North America and Siberia, the Northwest and Northeast Caucasian languages of Transcaucasia, and Basque and the Finno-Ugric languages in Europe.
Problems
Not all languages can be easily classified as being completely polysynthetic. Morpheme and word boundaries are not always clear cut, and languages may be highly synthetic in one area but less synthetic in other areas (compare verbs and nouns in Southern Athabaskan languages).
Theoretical issues
Bibliography
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- Baker, Mark. (1996). The polysynthesis parameter.
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- Evans, Nicholas; & Sasse, Hans-Jürgen. (2002). Problems of polysynthesis. Berlin: Akademie Verlag. ISBN 3-05-003732-6.
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