The evolution of noun incorporation

@article{Mithun1984TheEO,  title={The evolution of noun incorporation},  author={Marianne Mithun},  journal={Language},  year={1984},  volume={60},  pages={847 - 894},  url={https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:143600392}}
  • M. Mithun
  • Published1 December 1984
  • Linguistics
  • Language
State University of New York, Albany Noun incorporation is perhaps the most nearly syntactic of all morphological processes. Examination of the phenomenon across a large number of geographically and genetically diverse languages indicates that, where syntax and morphology diverge, incorporation is a solidly morphological device that derives lexical items, not sentences. It is used for four different but related purposes; these fall into an implicational hierarchy which in turn suggests a path… 

820 Citations

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44 References

Noun incorporation in Greenlandic: A case of syntactic word formation

The language thus falsifies pronouncements concerning the independence of syntax and word formation based on data from languages that are typologically very different from Greenlandic.

Onondaga Noun Incorporation: Some Notes on the Interdependence of Syntax and Semantics

Given that noun incorporation is relatively widespread among American Indian languages, and that it was recognized at least as early as 1819,2 it is surprising that it has been given as little…

THE PROBLEM OF NOUN INCORPORATION IN AMERICAN LANGUAGES

HE term “incorporation” has been much used in discussion devoted to the structure of American languages. Despite the steadily growing mass of American linguistic material, a good share of the data…

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