Part-Of-Speech and Semantic-Class Preferences for Certain Word-Formation Processes: Wichi (Mataguayan)

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the differences in proportion and distribution of word-formation processes within the vocabulary of Wichi (Mataguayan). From the analysis of two quantitatively and qualitatively representative Wichi vocabularies, it is shown that certain word-formation processes are preferred for some semantic fields and word-classes, and that these tendencies contribute to lexical connections. Whereas one database comprises 2,931 words distributed into 24 semantic fields, the second one contains 1,000 words referring to place-names and people-names. We suggest that the distribution of word-formation processes in the vocabularies of the languages could be a comparative morphological parameter for the study of world languages.