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Can an adnominal property word agree with the noun in number?
Summary
Adnominal property words semantically roughly correspond to adjectives in languages that have a separate adjective class. They can agree in number with the head noun even if the head noun is not overtly marked for number. Additionally, some languages exhibit a relativized form of the adnominal property word, which also expresses agreement with the noun it modifies. This construction is included within the scope of this feature.
Procedure
- Code 1 if at least some adnominal property words, including those in their relativized forms, overtly agree with the number of the head noun they modify.
- Code 0 if the author states that there is no agreement, or if there is no evidence of this in the data. This applies to both regular and relativized forms.
Examples
Yeri (ISO 639-3: yev, Glottolog: yapu1240)
Coded 1 (Wilson 2017: 129–132). Adjectives show plural agreement with their head noun, even if the head noun does not have a plural marker.
neigal sɨpekɨ-i yot-u-i ∅-o tapo.
cuscus little-PL DEM-MDIST-PL 3pl-stay.REAL tree.hole
‘Those small cuscuses live in the hole of the tree.’
Barambu (ISO 639-3: brm, Glottolog: bara1361)
Coded 1. The plural prefix is occasionally attached to adjectives. Plurality may also be shown through reduplication.
ä-gú̹ɽú̹-gu̹ɽu̹ a-ŋguà
PL-short-REDUP PL-tree
‘short trees’ (Tucker & Bryan 1966: 146)
Kenga (ISO 639-3: kyq, Glottolog: keng1240)
Coded 1. In Kenga, the plural clitic can attach to the end of the noun phrase, so also to the adjective (Vandame 1968: 18–21).
Further reading
Corbett, Greville G. 2000. Number. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
References
Tucker, Archibald N. & Margaret A. Bryan. 1966. Linguistic analyses: The Non-Bantu languages of North-Eastern Africa. (Handbook of African Languages.) London: Oxford University Press.
Vandame, Charles. 1968. Grammaire Kenga. (Études Linguistiques, 2.) Paris: Afrique et Language.
Wilson, Jennifer. 2017. A grammar of Yeri: A Torricelli language of Papua New Guinea. Buffalo: State University of New York. (Doctoral dissertation.)
Related Features
- GB185 Can an adnominal demonstrative agree with the noun in number?
- GB186 Can an article agree with the noun in number?
Patron
Jay Latarche and Jeremy Collins