Semantic taxonomy and nominal coordination in Vietnamese

Abstract

This paper investigates a previously underexploredtype of nominal coordination – Semantically Unlike Nominal Coordination (SUNC) –originally identified in Korean, and examines its presence in Vietnamese. SUNCconstructions involve conjuncts that are not semantically compatible with a shared verb,thereby challenging conventional assumptions about coordination. Drawing onexperimental data, this study demonstrates that Vietnamese, like Korean, permits SUNCconstructions. It extends a semantic taxonomy–based analysis, initially proposed forKorean, to the Vietnamese data, arguing that the apparent semantic mismatch betweenthe verb and one conjunct can be resolved through mediation by an appropriatehypernym. These findings have significant implications for theories of coordination, asthey challenge both syntactic and semantic constraints traditionally assumed to governcoordination. By incorporating data from two distinct languages, this study contributesto a more comprehensive theory of cross-linguistic variation in coordination structures.