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Incorporation in Chukchi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2026

Andrew Spencer
Andrew Spencer*
Affiliation:
University of Essex
*
Department of Language and Linguistics, University of Essex, Colchester, England C04 3SQ
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Abstract

Noun Incorporation in Chukchi is shown to exhibit many of the characteristics that would be expected on a syntactic analysis of incorporation (e.g. Baker 1988): it is productive, the incorporated element may be referential, subjects can only be incorporated from unaccusative verbs, and noun incorporation feeds a process of Dative Shift, just as predicted on Baker's syntactic account.

However, several properties are incompatible with this. In particular, Chukchi freely allows incorporation of adjuncts (which would violate the ECP on Baker's account). In addition, nouns incorporate their modifiers/specifiers, in a way not predicted by a syntactic (head movement) theory. Moreover, Chukchi permits incorporation of aspectual/ temporal elements, which contradicts even the much weaker version of Baker's thesis proposed by Rivero 1992 to handle adverb incorporation in Greek. The data are, however, broadly compatible with a lexical analysis along the lines of Rosen 1989.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 71 , Issue 3 , September 1995 , pp. 439 - 489
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 by the Linguistic Society of America

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