Abstract

This paper deals with a special technique of nominal classification, viz. classification by verb. Languages which use their verb stems or verbal affixes to classify subjects of intransitive verbs or objects of transitive verbs according to specific characteristics on a semantic basis are predominantly found in North America. Although this technique bears some resemblances to selectional restrictions, a subsystem of classificatory verbs must conform to certain criteria, which do not apply to selectional restrictions. In languages with classificatory verbs, the verb stem always serves a double purpose because it consists of one element which contains the classification and one element which contains the predication. There are considerable interlinguistic differences as far as the morphological variation of this phenomenon is concemed. The languages to which this paper confines itself are Navaho, Klamath, Cherokee, and Diegueiio. In Navaho both elements form one inseparable unit, i.e. they always appear as one morpheme, in Cherokee both elements are sometimes realized as one morpheme sometimes as two morphemes, and in Klamath and Diegueiio the classifying can be separated from the predicating element. A comparison with other techniques of nominal classification (especially numeral classification) shows that classification by verb should be treated as a technique of its own.