'De-inflectionalization' of Japanese Adjectives and Watkins' Law in Indo-European: A Comparison
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Date
2018-10
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Ohio State University. Libraries
Abstract
So-called 'de-inflectionalization' of adjectives is a familiar phenomenon in modern Japanese dialects spoken e.g. in Kyūshū and Tōhoku. Recent work has however pointed out that the term 'de-inflectionalization' is problematic, and has proposed that instead a fusion of adjectival root plus an inflectional morpheme has been reanalyzed as a new root, which becomes generalized through the paradigm. This paper takes this analysis of the changes seen in these adjectives as a starting point and endeavors to resolve difficulties in the data by recourse to a comparison with a complex of changes commonly seen in Indo-European languages and collectively known as 'Watkins' Law.'
Description
Keywords
Analogy, morphology, diachronic, Watkins' Law, paradigms
Citation
Bowman, Frederick. "'De-inflectionalization' of Japanese Adjectives and Watkins' Law in Indo-European: A Comparison." Buckeye East Asian Linguistics, vol. 3 (October 2018), p. 1-10.