Noun Incorporation in Yimas

According to Mark C. Baker, Noun Incorporation structures are “those in which a nominal root is morphologically combined with a predicate to make a single, complex word.” This process is common in many polysynthetic languages. In Yimas, however, Noun Incorporation is relatively rare – it usually generates idiomatic structures, except in the cases where nominalized adjectives and adjectival verbs are incorporated.

An example of Noun Incorporation in which the resulting structure is idiom-like in meaning is illustrated below:

(1) ampan-pay-pucm-api-n

     HORT 1A/2SG D – first – time VII SG – put in – IMP

     “I will give you time first.” (I will wait)

 

The bolded segments in example (1) indicate where Noun Incorporation is occurring. The resulting utterance is not completely transparent in meaning, as is typical of this process in Yimas. As a result, Noun Incorporation is not considered as productive in Yimas as it is in other polysynthetic languages.

However, there are instances of Noun Incorporation that yield more compositional, hence more literal, utterances:

(2) patn                        na-mpu-ŋa-taŋ-

     betelnut V SG     V SG O – 3PL A – 1SG D – COM –

     mama–k–n-tal-cɨ-t

     bad – IRR – V SG – CAUS – become – PERF

     “They ruined my betelnut.”

In example (2), the nominalized adjective mama-k-n “bad” is incorporated into the causative verb. The result is more transparent than example (1) in that the connection between “to make bad” and “to ruin” is more apparent than the connection between “to give time” and “to wait.” Although this resembles causativization of an adjective, like the example [_Amodern[_Vize]] shown in class, it is explicitly cited as an example of Noun Incorporation in Yimas by Foley.

It is also important to note that in Yimas Noun Incorporation is not required; therefore, nouns are not restricted to incorporated positions:

(3) ura-mpu-na-akpi-api-n

      fire O – 3PL A – DEF – back V SG – put in – PRES

     “They are putting (their) backs to the fire.”

(4) akpi                ura-mpu-na-api-n

       back V SG      fire O – 3PL A – DEF – put inside – PRES

      “They are putting (their) backs to the fire.”

Examples (3) and (4) show two different constructions of the same sentence. In example (3) the noun akpi “back” is incorporated into the verb structure, whereas in (4) it stands alone. Because Noun Incorporation is optional in Yimas, these two sentences have identical meanings.

The tree below, corresponding to example (2), further illustrates the process of Noun Incorporation in Yimas: 

Within the tree, we see the BPC used for two separate processes. First, the node containing the adverb pay (“first”), undergoes adjunction-modification, and thus does not percolate any additional features onto the verb. Secondly, the BPC is used to percolate inflectional morphemes in two instances: the hortative, (“HORT”) and imperative, -n (“Imperative”). Moreover, our tree demonstrates the use of a portmanteau to form the complex noun morpheme, ampan. Syntactically, this node would include agreement structures for the subject (HORT 1A) and indirect object (2SG D) that combine together to form the resulting noun morpheme. Finally, the tree illustrates the fact that the agreement structures within ampan do not saturate; and therefore, there is no linking occurring between ampan and the existing verb phrase “put in time”.

References:

Baker, M. (1993). Noun incorporation and the nature of linguistic representation. In Foley, W. A., editor, The Role of Theory in Language Description, pages 13–44. Mouton de Gruyter., Berlin.

Foley, W. (1991). Basic Verbal Morphology. In The Yimas Language of New Guinea (pp. 319-321). Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.