Lexical categories and functional flexibility in some Austronesian languages,
What is it about?
The article is about whether or not the lexemes in Amis (Formosan) and Nêlêmwa (New Caledonia) are subcategorised as nouns, verbs and other categories, and at what level of analysis (roots, stems, or words set in a syntactic frame) ? The other related question is how flexible or rigid their categories and functions are. Amis is an instance of a language whose lexical roots are mostly subcategorised, while Nêlêmwa's lexemes are mostly categorised as nouns or verbs.
Why is it important?
THis is part of a debate on categories in languages in general and in Austronesian languages in particular. Detailed analyses of Amis and Nêlêmwa substantiate the notion that Amis lexical roots are pervasively categorially neutral. . Only primarily and secondarily derived word forms are categorised as nouns, verbs, or adjectival modifiers. But, once roots have been derived and inflected into word forms, they are strictly categorised and unambiguously identifiable. In contrast,, Nêlêmwa has fairly rigid lexical categories. Only 5% of the lexicon is categorially flexible (as nouns or verbs), all other lexemes are subcategorised and undergo category-changing derivations. But there is some degree of functional flexibility.