Cover not available

Article published In: Studies in Language
Vol. 46:4 (2022) ► pp.901–933

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

Possessive inflection in Chichimec inalienable nouns

The morphological organization of a closed irregular class

ORCiD logo with link | University of Zurich
Published online: 14 February 2022
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.21020.her
Abstract
Person and number of a possessor are expressed in Chichimec in one of two ways. Most nouns use possessive classifiers. A smaller class (typically inalienables) inflects for the possessor synthetically. This paper constitutes the first in-depth exploration of this latter class. These nouns are characterized by unparalleled levels of irregularity, with more than 100 different inflection classes and most nouns exhibiting completely unique exponence patterns. The morphology of these nouns is based on several orthogonal inflectional layers: prefixes, stem alternations, and tone, all of which exhibit only weak predictive relations to other subsystems or cells, and equally unpredictable mappings to the possessor values they instantiate. The system is also extremely challenging with respect to segmentation, as most of the segments within the word can change in inflection seemingly independently of the neighbouring ones. This paper surveys this baroque system in search of its organizational principles.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Nominal (possessive) inflection in Chichimec
  • 3.The inflectional complexity of “inalienable” nouns
    • 3.1Person-number prefixes
    • 3.2Stem alternations
    • 3.3Inflectional tone
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Segmentation, speaker knowledge, and the PCFP
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (33)
References
Ackerman, Farrell, Blevins, James P. & Malouf, Robert. 2009. Parts and wholes: Implicative patterns in inflectional paradigms. In James P. Blevins & Juliette Blevins (eds.), Analogy in grammar: Form and acquisition, 54–82. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ackerman, Farrell, Robert Malouf & James P. Blevins. 2016. Patterns and discriminability in language analysis. Word structure 9(2). 132–155. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Avelino, Heriberto & Eurie Shin. 2011. Chapter 1: The phonetics of laringealization in Yucatec Maya. In Heriberto Avelino (ed.), New perspectives in Mayan linguistics, 1–20. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baerman, Matthew. 2011. Defectiveness and homophony avoidance. Journal of Linguistics 47(1). 1–29. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014. Suppletive kin term paradigms in the languages of New Guinea. Linguistic Typology 18(3). 413–448. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bank, Sebastian. 2017. Segmentation: A remark on the Syncretism Principle. Morphology 27(1). 1–20. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beniamine, Sacha & Matías Guzmán Naranjo. 2021. Multiple alignments of inflectional paradigms. Proceedings of the Society for Computation in Linguistics 4(1). 216–227.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boyé, Gilles and Gauvain Schalchli. 2019. Realistic data and paradigms: The paradigm cell finding problem. Morphology 29(2). 199–248. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carroll, Matthew Jay. 2016. The Ngkolmpu Language with special reference to distributed exponence. Canberra: Australian National University PhD dissertation.
Dahl, Östen & Koptjevskaja-Tamm, Maria. 2001. Kinship in grammar. In Irène Baron, Michael Herslund & Finn Sørensen (eds.), Dimensions of possession, 201–225. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Angulo, Jaime. 1933. The Chichimeco language (Central Mexico). International Journal of American Linguistics 7(3/4). 152–194. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Erdmann, Alexander, Micha Elsner, Shijie Wu, Ryan Cotterell & Nizar Habash. 2020. The paradigm discovery problem. In Proceedings of the 58th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics, 7778–7790, Online. Association for Computational Linguistics. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Feist, Timothy & Enrique L. Palancar. 2015. Oto-Manguean Inflectional Class Database. University of Surrey. [URL]
. 2021. Paradigmatic restructuring and the diachrony of stem alternations in Chichimec. Language 97(1). 1–41. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ferro, Marcello, Claudia Marzi & Vito Pirrelli. 2011. A self-organizing model of word storage and processing: implications for morphology learning. Lingue e linguaggio 10(2). 209–226.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gibson, Lorna & Doris Bartholomew. 1979. Pame noun inflection. International Journal of American Linguistics 45(4). 309–322. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Herce, Borja. 2019. Deconstructing (ir)regularity. Studies in Language 43(1). 44–91. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2020. Stem alternations in Kiranti and their implications for the morphology–phonology interface. Journal of Linguistics 57(2). 321–363. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2022. Stress and stem allomorphy in the Romance perfectum: emergence, typology, and motivations of a symbiotic relation. Linguistics. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lastra, Yolanda. 2004. Caracterización del chichimeco jonaz: la posesión. Revista de Lenguas Indígenas y Universos Culturales Año 2004(1). 61–80.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lee, Jackson & John A. Goldsmith. 2014. Automatic morphological alignment and clustering. Technical report TR-2014-07, Department of Computer Science, University of Chicago.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lizárraga Navarro, Glenda Zoé. 2018. Morfología verbal de persona y número en Chichimeco jonaz. Tlalpan: El Colegio de México PhD dissertation.
Mansfield, John, Sabine Stoll & Balthasar Bickel. 2020. Category clustering: A probabilistic bias in the morphology of verbal agreement marking. Language 96(2). 255–293. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mansfield, John. 2016. Intersecting formatives and inflectional predictability: How do speakers and learners predict the correct form of Murrinhpatha verbs? Word Structure 9(2). 183–214. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marmion, Douglas Edric. 2010. Topics in the phonology and morphology of Wutung. Canberra: Australian National University PhD dissertation.
Nevins, Andrew. 2011. Multiple agree with clitics: Person complementarity vs. omnivorous number. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 29(4). 939–971. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nordlinger, Rachel. 2015. Inflection in Murrinh-Patha. In Matthew Baerman (ed.), The Oxford handbook of inflection, 491–520. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Palancar, Enrique L. & Heriberto Avelino. 2019. Inflectional complexity and verb classes in Chichimec. Amerindia 411. 323–360.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Parker, Jeff & Andrea D. Sims. 2019. Irregularity, paradigmatic layers, and the complexity of inflection class systems: A study of Russian nouns. In Peter Arkadiev & Francesco Gardani (eds.), The complexities of morphology, 23–51. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Silvey, Catriona, Simon Kirby & Kenny Smith. 2015. Word meanings evolve to selectively preserve distinctions on salient dimensions. Cognitive Science 39(1). 212–226. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Spencer, Andrew. 2012. Identifying stems. Word Structure 5(1). 88–108. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stump, Gregory & Raphael A. Finkel. 2015. The complexity of inflectional systems. Linguistics Vanguard 1(1). 101–117. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thornton, Anna M. 2012. Reduction and maintenance of overabundance. A case study on Italian verb paradigms. Word Structure 5(2). 183–207. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (5)

Cited by five other publications

Herce, Borja, Matthew Baerman & Jeff Parker
2025. System size and system complexity: A case study in Pamean nouns and verbs. Journal of Linguistics 61:4 ► pp. 747 ff. DOI logo
Puškar-Gallien, Zorica, Nicholas Rolle & Tonjes Veenstra
2025. Multiple exponence: where we are and where we are going. Morphology 35:2 ► pp. 81 ff. DOI logo
Herce, Borja
2024. VeLePa: Central Pame verbal inflection in a quantitative perspective. Morphology 34:3 ► pp. 281 ff. DOI logo
Herce, Borja
2025. Central Pame verbal inflection. Studies in Language 49:2 ► pp. 412 ff. DOI logo
Herce, Borja
2025. Emergence and evolution of free variation in Central Pame prefixes. Diachronica DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 2 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue