Simple Words Complex Words

It can be visually observed in orthographic Burmese as the letter -S ha.-htui: [mhxdk: affixed to nasals, liquids, and semivowels. It generates an aspirate causal variant in some cases; in other cases, the unmarked, orthographic aspirated consonant can be found in semantic causative—non-causative pairs, samples of which are presented in table 5. Okell 1969:205 lists many more sets. Unmarked Stative Intransitive Causal Active Transitive kwe: uJG ‘be split, separated’ hkwe: cJG ‘split, separate’ kyak usuf ‘be cooked’ hkyak csuf ‘cook’ lut vGwf ‘be free’ hlut v_wf ‘set free’ pyak ysuf ‘be ruined’ hpyak zsuf ‘to ruin’ Table 5. Causative pairs derived from Proto-Tibeto-Burman s-

3.3 Word

The word in Burmese is difficult to define Minn Latt 1959:318, principally due to recursive embedding of other grammatical levels into the word form and to the active process of conceptual blending in compounding. The result is that the word in Burmese is typically complex with numerous semantic processes at work, creating conceptual whole units out of numerous parts which have lost their independent sense within the newly constructed “whole.” The whole units of Burmese might be viewed from an English perspective as a larger construction in the grammatical hierarchy, such as a phrase or even a clause. Despite the indeterminacies, it is possible to define two classes of words: simple and complex.

3.3.1 Simple Words

The simple word corresponds roughly to a single morpheme that demonstrates lexical, semantic, and grammatical autonomy. That is to say, it is not a bound form. The simple word is found in the mental lexicon as a main entry. It is used as a lexical base for building complex word forms, e.g., hnaung aeSmif ‘tie up; bind’; rany |nf ‘aim at; hope for’; daung amif: ‘peacock’; mrwe a\rG ‘snake’; te: aw: ‘song’. The category of simple words also contains representatives of grammatical function words, here called particles, which at the word level are independent but at the phrase or higher levels function obligatorily with other constructional elements, e.g., twang wGif ‘in’; hnai. Y ’at’ ; hnang. eSifh ‘with’.

3.3.2 Complex Words

The complex word is what this study of nominalization is about. To introduce the topic briefly, it can be said that the most basic complex word in Burmese is the structural compound. The prototypical compound consists of two unbound forms juxtaposed. These words are of the same grammatical category. That is, words in a simple compound construction are either both nouns or both verbs. The simple compound word at the basic level can be grammatically represented by N + N or V + V, where N represents any simple noun, and V represents any simple verb. Some Burmese compounds derive from minimal free forms whose independence has been lost, so that there is no clear sense of the meaning of one or both of the terms. The compound word is typically recognized by the native speaker to mean a uniquely defined whole. Speakers are resistant to analyze the parts of compounds, particularly when the meaning is distinctly different from the contributing parts. In such cases, the process of conceptual blending is inferred to have resulted through pragmatic factors in such a tight blend that segmentation of meaning into analytical component processes is resisted as a distortion of meaning. 57 Examples of N + N Compounds im tdrf ‘house’ + sa: om: ‘son’ = ‘person living in the house; family member’ cit pdwf ‘mind’ + dhat mwf ‘element’ = ‘spirit; mind set’ htaung axmif ‘jail’ + sa: om: ‘son’ = ‘prisoner’ nui. dkh ‘milk’ + rany: |nf: ‘liquid’ = ‘milk’ 58 Examples of V + V Compounds lwai vGf ‘easy’ + ku ul ‘cross’ = ‘be easy’ hau: a[m ‘preach’ + prau a\ym ‘say’ = ‘preach’ hlam. væhH ‘exhort’ + hcau aqmf ‘attack’ = ‘stimulate; arouse’ htaung axmif ‘trap’ + hpam: zr:f ‘catch’ = ‘ensnare by wile or guile’ These two types of simple and complex words correspond roughly to what Minn Latt labeled “primary word” and “word proper,” the first being “the basis of lexicology and the second that of grammar” 1959:321. An expanded compound may take as one of its member parts a complex N, one of which is structurally a phrase or clause.

3.4 Past Approaches to Word Categories