Partes del discurso

Miercoles 13 | 15:30-17:30 | Sesiones de trabajo
Sala E. Léger, ISH (sótano)
español Réunion interna


This session introduces the parts of speech found in most Cariban languages, as well as the arguments that have been used to identify each one. It also emphasizes the importance of distinguishing parts of speech at three levels: root, stem, and word.

  • ROOTS: Parts of speech that are clearly identifiable as unmodified roots are noun, verb, adverb, postposition, particle, and ideophone.


  • STEMS: Roots can be modified by derivational morphology to become complex sters the same word class or to become derived stems of other word classes.
    • A verb root can become a more complex verb stem, and a verb root or stem can become a noun stem or an adverb stem. Most discussion of verbs is deferred until later.
    • A noun root/stem can become a verb stem, an adverb stem, or a more complex noun stem.
  • An adverb root/stem can become a noun stem.
  • Postposition roots can become noun stems.
  • Ideophone roots can become verb stems in some languages.
  • Particles generally cannot be derived or inflected.


  • WORDS: Stems (often plus inflectional morphology) become words that can be combined in various grammatical constructions. Different classes of words are identified based on their occurrence in specific constructions. We will look at the kinds of constructions that have been used to identify parts of speech in various Cariban languages.