 |
Business | Industries | Finance | Tax |
| Index: > A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
|
|||||
| First Prev [ 1 2 ] Next Last |
Polysynthetic languages are highly synthetic languages, i.e. languages in which words are composed of many morphemes. 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 word per morpheme). These highly synthetic languages often have very long words that correspond to complete sentences in less synthetic languages. A special case of polysynthesis involves incorporation where lexical morphemes (or lexemes) are combined together to form a single polysynthetic word. Not all polysynthetic languages are incorporating languages.
There are two main ways that words can be built up of many morphemes. Agglutinative languages build words by "gluing" morphemes together essentially unchanged. Fusional languages build words by "squishing" morphemes together, often changing the morphemes in the process. European languages tend to be fusional languages, while Native American languages tend to be highly agglutinative.
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:
(5:1 morpheme-to-word ratio. 3 incorporated lexical morphemes (meyŋə, levtə, pəγt).)
From Classical Ainu, another polysynthetic, incorporating, and agglutinating language:
(The word aaejajkotujmasiramsujpa has 9 morphemes & lexical morphemes (tujma, ram) incorporated into the verb.)
Languages with a high degree of synthesis but without being incorporating include Basque, Central Siberian Yupik, and the Bantu languages.
An example from Central Siberian Yupik, a polysynthetic & agglutinating (but not incorporating) language:
(5:1 ratio. Only one lexical morpheme (angya 'boat').)
According to some linguists, spoken French can be classed as highly synthetic: a phrase such as je ne le sais pas is all one word, with the words that are separate in the standard written language becoming clitics or word inflections in the spoken language. It is structurally similar to a single Bantu word. If this is true, spoken French is thus far and away the most synthetic Indo-European language.
As a final note, 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 Apachean languagesApachean also known as Southern Athabaskan, refers to members of the Apachean language family (including Navajo) which is in turn a member of the larger Athabaskan family. These languages are spoken by various bands of Apache and Navajo peoples. They are).
The terms synthetic and polysynthetic in this sense were first used by Edward SapirEdward Sapir (pronunciation: suh PEER), ( 1884- 1939) was an American anthropologist- linguist, a leader in American structural linguistics, and one of the creators of what is now called the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. He was born in Lauenburg, Germany. He wa in the 1920s.
| Politics | Business | Finance |
 |
 |
 |
|