Productivity and Lexicalization in Shipibo Body-Part Prefixation

Abstract

Shipibo, a Panoan language spoken in Amazonian Peru, has a set of 31 monosyllabic forms, representing mostly body parts, which are phonologically attached to the front of verbs, adjectives and nouns. For most of these morphemes, noun roots designating body parts exist which are semantically similar and whose initial segments are the same. Consequently, previous scholars have analyzed these prefixed forms as allomorphs of or otherwise synchronically derived from the noun roots. The present paper will present evidence demonstrating that Shipibo-Konibo body-part morphemes are independent prefixes and best analyzed as not being synchronically derived from body-part nouns. Furthermore, although body-part prefixation is quite productive in Shipibo, many lexicalized prefixed stems exist, which have undergone semantic and/or phonological changes. Therefore, a second goal of this paper is to provide a more accurate description of the grammar of Shipibo prefixation by identifying lexicalized stems and treating them separately.

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