Skip to content
Universal 1630: polysynthesis ⇒ ¬ NP reflexive
- Original
- All polysynthetic languages will lack overt NP anaphors, at least as objects.
- Standardized
- IF there is polysynthesis, THEN there will be no NP reflexive.
- Keywords
- polysynthesis, anaphor, pronoun, reflexive
- Domain
- morphology, syntax
- Type
- implication
- Status
- achronic
- Quality
- statistical
- Basis
- Polysynthetic languages like Mohawk (Iroquoian), Nahuatl (Uto-Aztecan), Kiowa (Kiowa- Tanoan), Gunwinjguan (Gunwingguan, Australian), Wichita (Caddoan), Chukchi (Chukchi-Kamchatkan), Ainu (isolate). Non-polysynthetic languages like Greenlandic (Eskimo-Aleut), Lakhota (Siouan), Slave (Athabaskan), Alamblak (Sepik-Ramu), Chichewa (Bantoid, Niger-Congo), Choctaw (Muskogean)
- Source
- Baker 1996: 50
- Counterexamples
- Chukchi (Chukchi-Kamchatkan) has NP reflexive, but it is barred from appearing in argument position (Baker 1996: 51ff.)