From part terms to class terms: Grammaticalization of meronyms in noun classifiers in Yanomama

Sumario: Terms for body parts are an important source of grammaticalization of noun classifiersin Yanomama. This work will describe one of the paths that part terms have followed inbecoming a classifier. This path begins with a lexicogenic mechanism found in the languagethat makes use of a whole-part construction, in a metaphorical sense, to name not parts ofentities, but whole entities. This construction is not formally distinguishable from a nounwith a classifier. In particular, the body part terms in these constructions occupy the samemorphosyntatic position reserved for noun classifier. This circumstance gave room for laterressemantization processes of the meronyms that eventually allowed some of them to gain,not only the morphosyntatic properties of a classifier, but also the semantic features of atypical one.