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Article published In: Transcategoriality: A crosslinguistic perspective
Edited by Sylvie Hancil, Danh Thành Do-Hurinville and Huy Linh Dao
[Cognitive Linguistic Studies 5:1] 2018
► pp. 8–38

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Transcategoriality and isolating languages

The case of Vietnamese

 | Université de Franche-Comté
 | Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales
Published online: 30 August 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/cogls.00011.doh
Abstract
In the first part, we show that the notion of transcategoriality, which is present in several types of languages (inflectional, isolating, agglutinative), serves to reconcile two antinomic forces of human linguistic activity: to satisfy cognitive-communicative needs and to limit the effort/to optimise linguistic systems. In the second part, we first examine our triangular dynamic model which comprises three macro-categories, namely lexeme, grammeme, pragmateme, and then, we discuss the differences between these three macro-categories. In the third and last part, we argue for the existence of transcategoriality in Vietnamese, an isolating language without inflectional morphology. We will discuss this issue by analyzing some markers such as: thành công, đẹp, mới, thì, and mà.
Article outline
  • 1.The notion of transcategoriality
    • 1.1Transcategoriality in inflectional languages
    • 1.2Transcategoriality in isolating languages
    • 1.3Transcategoriality in agglutinating languages
    • 1.4Application and extension to Vietnamese and other languages
  • 2.Towards a dynamic model of description
    • 2.1The three Macro-Categories: Lexeme, Grammeme, Pragmateme
    • 2.2Lexeme, grammeme and pragmateme: What differences?
  • 3.Analysis of some transcategorial markers in Vietnamese
    • 3.1Within the class of lexemes: The case of thành công and đẹp
      • 3.1.1The not pre-categorised lexeme thành công
      • 3.1.2The lexeme đẹp (verb of quality > noun or verb modifier)
    • 3.2From lexeme to grammeme: The case of mới
      • 3.2.1 Mới as averb of quality (lexeme)
      • 3.2.2 Mới as a TAM marker (grammeme)
      • 3.2.3 Mới as a restrictive marker (grammeme)
    • 3.3From lexeme to pragmateme: The case of of thôi
      • 3.3.1 Thôi as a dynamic verb (lexeme)
      • 3.3.2 Thôi as a pragmateme
    • 3.4From lexeme to grammeme or to pragmateme: The case of thì
      • 3.4.1 Thì as a noun (lexeme)
      • 3.4.2 Thì as a clausal conjunction (grammeme)
      • 3.4.3 Thì as a topicaliser (pragmateme)
    • 3.5From grammeme to pragmateme: The case of mà
      • 3.5.1 Mà as a relativiser (grammeme)
        • a.Indefinite noun phrase (constituent A)
        • b.Definite noun phrase (constituent A)
        • c.Generic or kind-referring noun phrase (constituent A)
      • 3.5.2 Mà as a verbal conjunction (grammeme)
      • 3.5.3 Mà as a propositional conjunction (grammeme)
      • 3.5.4 Mà as an attitudinal sentence-final particle (pragmateme)
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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