| This dissertation addresses the following question: Is grammar a self-contained 'module' that can be understood without appealing to general cognitive processes such as prototype categorization, metaphor, metonymy, and idealized cognitive models?;The goal of this study is to demonstrate that only by making use of what is known about general cognitive processing will it be possible to provide insightful analyses of grammatical phenomena. The particular case to be considered is the problem of verbal prefixation in modern, standard Malay. I show that the Malay prefixes are pradigmatically organized into categories marked for volitionality values. Extensions from these categories are then shown to be motivated by inferences involving both metaphor and metonymy. Each prefix is also associated with a particular transitivity level, which constrains the kinds of events it can code. A particular event is construed as being high or low in transitivity depending on how well it fits a prototype. This conceptual notion of transitivity must be formally coded by the appropriate prefix.;The analysis explains a variety of morphosyntactic effects such as the kinds of stems a prefix can attach to, various prefix-suffix combinations, and why the ability of a direct object to take a determiner is affected by the particular prefix present, among others. And since prototype categorization, metaphor, and metonymy, are not unique to language, but are part of our general cognitive faculties, their importance in understanding the Malay prefixes makes a strong case against claims of a self-contained grammatical module.;The dissertation is organized into three parts: Part 1 reviews two previous attempts to deal with the prefixes. Part 2 shows how the prefixes are paradigmatically organized into volitionality categories. It also contains a discussion of their individual properties. Part 3 expands the discussion to include various cases that lie outside the paradigm. Among these are the co-occurrence restrictions governing various prefix-suffix combinations, and idiomatic prefix-stem constructions. Finally, in the concluding chapter, I discuss claims that the prefixes are voice markers, as well as examples of a particular construction where no prefix can be present. |
