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Pronominal affixes, the best of both worlds: the case of Yurakaré 1
Author(s) -
Van Gijn Rik
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
transactions of the philological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.333
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1467-968X
pISSN - 0079-1636
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-968x.2011.01249.x
Subject(s) - linguistics , personal pronoun , computer science , agreement , philosophy
Pronominal affixes in polysynthetic languages have an ambiguous status in the sense that they have characteristics normally associated with free pronouns as well as characteristics associated with agreement markers. This situation arises because pronominal affixes represent intermediate stages in a diachronic development from independent pronouns to agreement markers. Because this diachronic change is not abrupt, pronominal affixes can show different characteristics from language to language. By presenting an in‐depth discussion of the pronominal affixes of Yurakaré, an unclassified language from Bolivia, I argue that these so‐called intermediate stages as typically attested in polysynthetic languages actually represent economical systems that combine advantages of agreement markers and of free pronouns. In terms of diachronic development, such ‘intermediate’ systems, being functionally well‐adapted, appear to be rather stable, and it can even be reinforced by subsequent diachronic developments.