Thiago Chacon (Université de Brasilia, Collegium de Lyon) : "Nominal classification in Kubeo and in a comparative perspective"
In this talk I will discuss my analysis of the system of nominal classification in Kubeo, its status concerning a typology of nominal classification and how it relates to other systems within the Tukanoan family as well as other languages in Northwestern Amazonia. I start with an overview of how nouns in Kubeo are semantically categorized in complex ways by animacy, gender and classifiers in different morphosyntactic contexts. Then I offer a discussion of what is a classifier in Kubeo, how it is different from gender, common nouns and the so-called “repeaters”. Special points of discussion are the syntax of the NP, the status of classifiers as a special class of morphemes within a grammaticalization continuum, the function of classifiers in word formation, syntax and discourse, and how the Kubeo system can be interpreted within a general typology of nominal classification. Comparative considerations concerning the Tukanoan family and neighboring languages in the Northwest Amazon will be offered as a way to show the uniqueness of the Kubeo system as well as the possible ways that nominal classification evolves from inheritance and contact induced changes.