AND and WITH Conjunctive Strategies in Some Austronesian Languages: Syntax, Semantics, Pragmatics

Isabelle Bril (1)

1 LACITO - Langues et civilisations à tradition orale

This is an investigation of the competing NP conjunctive strategies in a sample of Austronesian languages: (i) AND conjunction, (ii) comitative WITH conjunction, and (iii) inclusorymeronymic constructions, analyzed as a subtype of NP conjunctive strategy. Most languages of the sample appear to be mixed AND and WITH languages in two senses: (i) their WITH conjunctive strategy is also used as an AND strategy, or (ii) they use both AND and WITH conjunctive strategies with two distinct morphemes. Syntactic constraints, semantic and pragmatic features at work in the choice of strategies are analysed. If AND-conjunction is structurally symmetrical, WITH-conjunction and meronymic constructions are more asymmetrical, both structurally and in terms of pragmatic saliency. For languages using distinct AND and WITH strategies and morphemes, the distribution of WITH conjunctions is more restricted in terms of conjoined categories, and carry different semantic features.

Mots clés: symmetrical and asymmetrical conjunction; inclusory-meronymic constructions; comitative; additive coordination

Domaines: Linguistique; Linguistique

Isabelle Bril. AND and WITH Conjunctive Strategies in Some Austronesian Languages: Syntax, Semantics, Pragmatics. Language and Linguistics, 2011, 12 (1), pp.239-272. ⟨hal-00591505⟩