In the Vestibule of Meaning

Abstract

In the Belhare (Tibeto-Burman) verb, morphotactics and allomorphy, but not morpheme semantics, are sensitive to a distinction between direct (1>2, 1>3, 2>3, 3SG>3) and inverse (3NS>3, 3>2, 3>1, 2>1) participant configurations. Comparison of this phenomenon with Cree (Algonquian) and rGya-ro (Tibeto-Burman) calls for a distinction of morphemic and sub- or supra-morphemic inversion. The difference is semiotically interpreted in a general theory of "Resonance Morphology". The smallest resonant pattern is either compositional and meaningful, i.e. a "morpheme", or predictable and meaningless, i.e. an "eideme". Eidemes can be motivationally grounded in an extra-morphological domain (e.g. pragmatics). This is demonstrated for morphotactics and allomorphy in Belhare and for a parallel in French.