Universal #1922

Legacy number: 1922

 Number  1916
 Original  It seems likely that no polysynthetic language has, within its system of pronominal affixes, a set of contrasts large enough to make all the distinctions in definiteness, indefiniteness, genericity and referentiality which can be made, in free nominal expressions, by various combinations of
articles, demonstratives, free pronouns, and adjectives representing discourse status. [...] I know of no [polysynthetic] language able to convey more than two values on this semantic dimension by its agreement morphology alone.
 Standardized  IF there is polysynthesis, THEN no more than a two-way contrast in definiteness, indefiniteness, genericity, and referentiality is conveyed by the bound pronominal affixes of agreement morphology alone.
 Keywords  polysynthesis, pronoun, agreement, definite, indefinite, generic, referential
 Domain  inflection, syntax, semantics
 Type  implication
 Status  achronic
 Quality  statistical
 Basis  polysynthetic languages covered in Evans & Sasse (eds.) 2002
 Source  Evans 2002: 47

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Discussion
Notes
[...] in general, polysynthetic languages use argument [af]fixes for a wider range of situations than warrant the use of free [personal, definite] pronouns, but that as one moves from definites to indefinites towards non-referential objects every polysynthetic language will draw the line at some point and use an alternative strategy, such as intransitivization. Once we have better data from a range of polysyntheticlanguages it will be interesting to see whether these cut-offs can be arranged in an implicational hierarchy. (Evans 2002)
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
[...] in general, polysynthetic languages use argument [af]fixes for a wider range of situations than warrant the use of free [personal, definite] pronouns, but that as one moves from definites to indefinites towards non-referential objects every polysynthetic language will draw the line at some point and use an alternative strategy, such as intransitivization. Once we have better data from a range of polysynthetic languages it will be interesting to see whether these cut-offs can be arranged in an implicational hierarchy. (Evans 2002)