Verbs and nouns from a cross-linguistic perspective

TY - JOUR

T1 - Verbs and nouns from a cross-linguistic perspective

AU - Rijkhoff, J.

PY - 2002

Y1 - 2002

N2 - It has often been claimed that all languages have major, distinct classes of verbs and nouns (see e.g. Robins 1967: 211; Schachter 1985: 6–7; Whaley 1997: 59). There is, however, growing evidence to suggest that the verb-noun distinction is scalar rather than discrete (Ross 1972, 1973), and that in some languages this distinction is perhaps even altogether absent (e.g. Kinkade 1983; Gil 1994, 2000; Broschart 1997; Hengeveld 1992a, 1992b). For a recent typological overview of ‘scales between nouniness and verbiness’ I refer to Sasse (2001a). This contribution is mostly concerned with languages in which the verb-noun distinction is believed to be weak, perhaps even non-existent, as well as languages in which verbs or nouns only constitute a minor word class (sections 1-4). Regarding languages that are deemed to have a solid verb-noun distinction, I will argue that verbs and nouns (as well as noun phrases and clauses) can be analyzed in a similar fashion (section 5).

AB - It has often been claimed that all languages have major, distinct classes of verbs and nouns (see e.g. Robins 1967: 211; Schachter 1985: 6–7; Whaley 1997: 59). There is, however, growing evidence to suggest that the verb-noun distinction is scalar rather than discrete (Ross 1972, 1973), and that in some languages this distinction is perhaps even altogether absent (e.g. Kinkade 1983; Gil 1994, 2000; Broschart 1997; Hengeveld 1992a, 1992b). For a recent typological overview of ‘scales between nouniness and verbiness’ I refer to Sasse (2001a). This contribution is mostly concerned with languages in which the verb-noun distinction is believed to be weak, perhaps even non-existent, as well as languages in which verbs or nouns only constitute a minor word class (sections 1-4). Regarding languages that are deemed to have a solid verb-noun distinction, I will argue that verbs and nouns (as well as noun phrases and clauses) can be analyzed in a similar fashion (section 5).

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1120-2726

VL - 14

SP - 115

EP - 147

JO - Rivista di Linguistica

JF - Rivista di Linguistica

IS - 1

ER -