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Vol. 45, no. 2 (Summer 2003)

Contents

Abstracts

The Morphosyntax of Classifiers in Anamuxra: Details of a Multiple Classifier System

Andrew Ingram
Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, La Trobe University

Abstract. This article examines the grammatical properties of the multiple classifier system of Anamuxra, a language spoken in the Josephstaal region of Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. Classifiers in Anamuxra occur as suffixes on a range of nominal words including: postpositive modifiers (adjectives, numerals, demonstratives, the specifier and indefinite articles, the general question word); the possessive word; the vocative; and nouns (common nouns, some proper nouns and some kin terms). Most, but not all, classifiers take the same form in the environments in which they occur. Different formal and semantic possibilities are found in different number categories (i.e., singular, dual, and plural) for certain animate classifiers. Syntactically, the four morphological classifier construction types have distinct distributional and functional possibilities. However, none of the environments in which classifiers are found, can, on current evidence, be considered historically or functionally primary. As well as describing the classifier system in Anamuxra in its own right, this article also considers Anamuxra classifiers from a broader crosslinguistic typological perspective.

Maa Color Terms and Their Use as Human Descriptors

Doris L. Payne
University of Oregon and SIL International

Abstract. The fine-grained color distinctions that many Maa speakers make are impressive: Maa has about thirty color terms and nearly twenty color-plus-design terms. Some are adjectives, while others are stative verbs. Probably seven to nine (including all the verbs) are "basic color terms" in the sense of Brent Berlin and Paul Kay's 1969 work. Figurative extensions of color concepts include use of e-múá 'color' to refer to 'type', as in a typology. Also, a traditional name for God is parmúáìn 'one of many colors', indicating that God is in control of all types of situations. Despite the large inventory of color terms, the ample number of basic color terms, and the metaphorical association between color and type, evidence from figurative senses, idioms, and some experimental work suggests there is a much simpler color-term system involved in conceptualization of human propensity and personality types. RED, DARK, and LIGHT are the color concepts used metaphorically in this fundamental human-relationship domain.

The Evidence on Algonquian Genetic Grouping: A Matter of Relative Chronology

Paul Proulx
Heatherton, Nova Scotia

Abstract. While Leonard Bloomfield suggested only that his reconstructions based on four Central Algonquian languages would fit Proto-Algonquian "in the main," later scholars, with the notable exception of Charles F. Hockett, convinced themselves that Bloomfield's reconstructed features, including those limited to non-Eastern Algonquian, were all genuine Proto-Algonquian ones. This left the impression that most Eastern Algonquian archaisms were "innovations," and indirectly motivated reconstructing "Proto-Eastern Algonquian." However, careful re-examination of the Eastern features believed to be diagnostic shows that they could well be inherited from Proto-Algonquian. This leaves no hard evidence for the Proto-Eastern Algonquian hypothesis, which must therefore be abandoned.

"Rices" and "Waters": The Mass-Count Distinction in Modern Persian

Farzad Sharifian
University of Western Australia

Ahmad R. Lotfi
Azad University, Iran

Abstract. This article explores the role of the distinction between mass and count nouns in Modern Persian. The data obtained for this study, through two preference tasks and a picture-description task, point to the flexibility of mass-count distinction with regard to the characterization of nouns such as berenj 'rice' and âb 'water'. This flexibility, it is maintained, hinges on the intended conceptualization of the speaker's experience. It is shown, for instance, that the use of the plural morpheme with berenj produces a variety of construals, captured here in the form of a taxonomy. The case of âb evades the current notional and distributional accounts of the mass-count distinction. It appears, overall, that certain perceptual and conceptual criteria underlie the choice between mass and count categorization in Modern Persian.

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