Manner/result polysemy as contextual allosemy: Evidence from Daakaka.

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Semantics
• Morphosyntax

Background:

• Manner/result polysemy presents a challenge to linguistic theories regarding verb meaning and root-meaning mappings.
• The hypothesis of manner/result complementarity suggests constraints on how manner and result components are encoded in verb roots.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine manner/result polysemy in the Oceanic language Daakaka.
• To propose a novel account for polysemous verbs that appear to violate manner/result complementarity.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of novel data from the Daakaka language, focusing on polysemous verbs like 'tiwiye'.
• Development of an account of contextual root allosemy based on morphosyntactic environments.
• Examination of suppletive verb forms to support the proposed allosemy model.

Main Results:

• Evidence suggests that manner and result meaning components in Daakaka verbs are in complementary distribution, not true violation of complementarity.
• A model of contextual root allosemy is proposed, where manner/result interpretations depend on syntactic positions relative to a verbalizer 'v'.
• Independent support for contextual allosemy is found in the overlap between contextual allomorphy and allosemy in suppletive verb forms.

Conclusions:

• The study provides evidence that manner/result polysemy can be explained through contextual root allosemy, reconciling apparent violations of complementarity.
• The findings challenge strict one-to-one mappings between linguistic roots and their meanings.
• Alternative accounts of polysemy, including derivation, coercion, and homophony, are discussed in light of the proposed model.