Compound and Incorporation Constructions as Combinations of Unexpandable Roots

Abstract

This paper offers definitions of the terms compound construction, compound and incorporation construction that can be applied to all languages in the same way. The earlier literature has often expressed pessimism about identifying such elements across languages in an objective way, but I propose definitions that do not rely on notions such as “word” or “morphology”. I define incorporation as a special kind of verbal compound construction, and a compound construction as a combination of strictly adjacent roots. Rather than being “non-phrasal”, I say that compounds are defined as  not expandable by modifiers. These definitions are shared-core definitions, like most other definitions of comparative concepts: They capture the core of the types of elements that have been called “compound” and “incorporation” in the earlier literature, but not necessarily every compound and every incorporation in every language. It should be noted that the paper does not make any empirical claims, but merely contributes to the methodology of general linguistics by means of a critical and constructive discussion of terminology.