Noun and Verb in a Salishan Language

Abstract

This paper examines the widely known view that the noun/verb distinction is meaningless for languages of Northwestern America. First, it is demonstrated that at least eleven lexical categories, including Noun and Verb, may be distinguished in Okanagan, an Interior Salishan language of this area. Using evidence from distribution and co-occurrence, Noun and Verb are characterized and from this, the other lexical categories are developed. Secondly, Predicate as a grammatical relation is distinguished from Verb as a lexical category. Then it is demonstrated that the Predicate relation may be borne by members of various lexical categories, including Verb, Adjective, Adverbial, Noun, Demonstrative, Preposition, Indefinite and Interrogative Pronoun, with evidence from four tests based on word order and markings.