Resumen de Dozing eyes and drunken faces: Nominalized psycho-collocations in Daakaka (Vanuatu)
Like many languages of the world, the Oceanic language Daakaka (Vanuatu) uses idiomatic combinations of body-part terms and verbs to express emotions, medical conditions and related concepts. However, languages differ in how they express the same concepts nominally. I will contrast the nominalization strategy found in Daakaka with other languages and discuss the differences. I will argue that the nominalization strategy in Daakaka is less transparent than its alternatives but that it allows for the formation of a paradigm that also includes meteorological expressions. This phenomenon highlights the need to look beyond individual lexemes when comparing lexical classes and derivational processes cross-linguistically.
