Word classes and the scope of lexical flexibility in Tongan
Tongan is an Oceanic language belonging to the Polynesian subgroup. Based on previous work (
Churchward 1953,
Tchekhoff 1981,
Broschart 1997), Tongan has been classified as a 'flexible' language by various typological approaches on word classes (
Hengeveld 1992,
Rijkhoff 1998,
Croft 2001). This means that lexical items are per se not categorised in terms of major word classes, but they can function as noun, verb, adjective and manner adverb without morphosyntactic derivation. However, not all lexemes are entirely flexible occurring within all these constructions. So the crucial issue of how flexible Tongan really is remains. This question will be addressed by a survey based on a combination of syntactic and semantic word class criteria – basically following Croft's prototype approach (
2000,
2001) but also considering Hengeveld & Rijkhoff's work (
Hengeveld 1992,
Hengeveld, Rijkhoff & Siewierska 2004,
Hengeveld 2013)
Evans & Osada's work (2005). It reveals the scope of lexical flexibility for various lexemes and semantic groups.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Defining word classes & lexical flexibility
- 2.1Hengeveld & Rijkhoff’s approach
- 2.2Croft’s approach
- 2.3Evans & Osada’s criteria of lexical flexibility
- 3.Word classes and lexical flexibility in Tongan
- 3.1Pragmatic versus syntactic criteria
- 3.2Morphology and word classes
- 3.3Syntactic & semantic criteria
- 3.4Semantic considerations
- 3.5Syntactic considerations
- 4.Survey regarding the scope of lexical flexibility in Tongan
- 5.Conclusion
- 5.1Further research on lexical flexibility & prototypicality in Tongan
- Notes
-
References
References (39)
References
Anderson, Victoria & Yuko Otsuka. 2006. The phonetics and phonology of ‘definite accent’ in Tongan. Oceanic Linguistics 45 (1). 21–42. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Anward, Jan, Edith Moravcsik & Leon Stassen. 1997. Parts of speech. A challenge for typology. Linguistic Typology 11. 167–183. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bisang, Walter. 2011. Word classes. In Jae Jung Song (ed.), The Oxford handbook of Linguistic Typology, 280–302. Oxford: Oxford University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bisang, Walter. 2013. Word classes between flexibility and rigidity. An integrative approach. In Jan Rijkhoff & Eva van Lier (eds.), Flexible word classes. Typological studies of underspecified parts of speech, 275–303. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Broschart, Jürgen. 1995. Why Tongan does it differently. Categorial distinctions in a language without nouns and verbs (Arbeiten des Sonderforschungsbereichs 282). Köln: Institut für Sprachwissenschaft.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Broschart, Jürgen. 1997. Why Tongan does it differently. Categorial distinctions in a language without nouns and verbs. Linguistic Typology 11. 123–165. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Churchward, Clerk. 1953. Tongan grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Churchward, Clerk. 1959. Dictionary Tongan – English, English – Tongan. Nuku‘alofa: Government of Tonga Printing Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Croft, William. 2000. Parts of speech as language universals and as language-particular categories. In Petra Vogel & Bernard Comrie (eds.), Approaches to the typology of word classes, 65–102. Berlin: de Gruyter. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Croft, William. 2001. Radical construction grammar. Syntactic theory in typological perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Evans, Nicholas & Toshiki Osada. 2005. Mundari: The myth of a language without word classes. Linguistic Typology 9 (3). 351–390.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Foley, William. 2013. List of nouns and verbs for cross-linguistic comparison of root flexibility. (provided the workshop on Lexical flexibility in Oceanic languages, Oct. 2014 in Amsterdam).
Haspelmath, Martin. 2001. Word classes and parts of speech. In Paul Baltes & Neil Smelser (eds.), International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences, 16538–16545. Amsterdam: Pergamon. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hengeveld, Kees. 1992. Non-verbal predication. Theory, typology, diachrony. Berlin: de Gruyter. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hengeveld, Kees. 2013. Parts-of-speech systems as a basic typological determinant. In Jan Rijkhoff & Eva van Lier (eds.), Flexible word classes. Typological studies of underspecified parts of speech, 31–55. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hengeveld, Kees, Jan Rijkhoff & Anna Siewierska. 2004. Part-of-speech systems and word order. Journal of Linguistics 401. 527–570. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hengeveld, Kees & Eva van Lier. 2010. An implicational map of parts of speech. Linguistic Discovery 8 (1). (Special Issue: Semantic maps. Methods and applications, edited by Michael Cysouw, Andrej Malchukov & Martin Haspelmath). 129–156.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lehmann, Christian. 2008. Roots, stems and word classes. Studies in Language 32 (3). (Special Issue: Parts of speech. Descriptive tools, theoretical constructs, edited by Umberto Ansaldo, Jan Don & Roland Pfau). 546–567. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lynch, John. 1998. Pacific languages. An introduction. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lynch, John, Malcolm Ross & Terry Crowley. 2011. The Oceanic languages. London: Routledge.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Morton Lee, Helen. 2003. Tongans overseas. Between two shores. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mosel, Ulrike. 2004. Complex predicates and juxtapositional constructions in Samoan. In Isabelle Bril & Françoise Ozanne-Rivierre (eds.), Complex predicates in Oceanic languages, 263–296. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mosel, Ulrike & Even Hovdhaugen. 1992. Samoan reference grammar. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Rijkhoff, Jan. 1998. Verbs and nouns from a cross-linguistic perspective. Rivista di Linguistica 10 (2). 115–147.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schachter, Paul & Timothy Shopen. 2007. Parts-of-speech systems. In Timothy Shopen (ed.), Language typology and syntactic description. Volume 1: Clause structure, 1–60. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Taumoefolau, Melenaite. 1996. Nominal possessive classification in Tonga. In John Lynch & Fa‘afo Pat (eds.), Oceanic studies. Proceedings of the first international conference on Oceanic linguistics (Pacific Linguistics Series C 133), 293–304. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Taumoefolau, Melenaite. 1998. Problems in Tongan lexicography. Auckland: University of Auckland PhD thesis.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Tchekhoff, Claude. 1981. Simple sentences in Tongan (Pacific Linguistics Series B 80). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Thompson, Richard & ‘Ofa Thompson. 1992. The student’s English – Tongan and Tongan – English dictionary. Nuku‘alofa: Friendly Islands Bookshop.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Tongan government. 2011. Tonga 2011. Census of population and housing. Nuku‘alofa: Statistics Department Tonga.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
van Lier, Eva. 2009. Parts of speech and dependent clauses. A typological study. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam PhD thesis.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
van Lier, Eva. 2014. Questionnaire Lexical flexibility. (for the workshop on Lexical flexibility in Oceanic languages, Oct. 2014 in Amsterdam).
van Lier, Eva & Jan Rijkhoff. 2013. Flexible word classes in linguistic typology and grammatical theory. In Jan Rijkhoff & Eva van Lier (eds.), Flexible word classes. Typological studies of underspecified parts of speech, 1–30. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Vonen, Arnfinn Muruvik. 2000. Polynesian multifunctionality and the ambitions of linguistic description. In Petra Vogel & Bernard Comrie (eds.), Approaches to the typology of word classes, 479–487. Berlin: de Gruyter. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wierzbicka, Anna. 2000. Lexical prototypes as a universal basis for cross-linguistic identification of ‘parts of speech’. In Petra Vogel & Bernard Comrie (eds.), Approaches to the typology of word classes, 285–317. Berlin: de Gruyter. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wilson, William. 1982. Proto-Polynesian possessive marking (Pacific Linguistics Series B 85). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (3)
Cited by three other publications
van Lier, Eva
2016.
Lexical flexibility in Oceanic languages.
Linguistic Typology 20:2
► pp. 197 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.