GB193 - grambank/grambank GitHub Wiki

What is the order of adnominal property word and noun?

Summary

GB193 focuses on the order of the adnominal property words and nouns. This feature has also been split into two binary features, "GB139a Is the order of the adnominal property word (ANM) and noun ANM-N?" and "GB193b Is the order of the adnominal property word (ANM) and noun N-ANM?". It is possible to answer 1 or 0 for one of the binarised features, and "?" for the other. It is possible that there are no adnominal property words, in which case GB193, GB193a and GB193b are all 0 (see procedure).

Adnominal property words, in some linguistic contexts synonymous with "adjectives", mark 'adjectival' functions even if they may not always be categorized as 'adjectives' in certain languages see GB069. These words express property concepts such as value, shape, age, and dimension. This question seeks to determine the pragmatically neutral order(s) of these property words relative to the nouns they modify.

Procedure

1. Code 1 for GB193 if most adnominal property words are placed before nouns or GB193a 1.
2. Code 2 1 for GB193 if most adnominal property words are placed after nouns or GB193b 1..
3. Code 3 1 for GB193 if adnominal property words can be placed before or after nouns, either because both orders are possible or because some adjectives precede and some follow the noun, or GB193a and GB193b 1.
4. Code 0 for GB193 or GB193a and GB913b if property words cannot be used attributively in a straightforward manner without further modification or grammatical construction, such as using relative clauses, participles or nominalized verbs in possessive constructions.
5. Even if property words are a sub-class of verbs, do not code 0. Instead, code 1, 2 or 3 based on the typical placement of these words in relation to nouns.

Examples

Amma (ISO 639-3: amm, Glottolog: amap1240)

Coded 3, adjectives may be placed before and after the noun.

sopo nu    siyoli 
tall house big
‘a big and tall house’ (Årsjö 1999: 94)

Maco (ISO 639-3: wpc, Glottolog: maco1239)

Coded 2, when adjectives are used attributively they usually follow the underived noun.

wiɾi ɨwaɾi-ˀbo       dew-aˀbo            hũn-an-õ-∅
dog  tail-CL.OBLONG  be.white-CL.OBLONG  have-DUR-CL.M-3.COP
‘the dog has a white tail’ 
(lit. a tail that is white=a tail a white one) (Rosés Labrada 2015: 283)

Ghadames (ISO 639-3: gha, Glottolog: ghad1239)

Coded 0, attribution of adjectival concepts is basically achieved by means of relative clauses with stative verbs in the participial form.

tawz̆aett=e   măttít-ăt 
girl=DEM     small.PFV-PTCP.F.SG
‘this small girl (lit. this girl that was small)’ (Kossmann 2013:129)

Further reading

Dryer, Matthew S. 2013. Order of Adjective and Noun. In Matthew S. Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds), The world atlas of language structures online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

References

Årsjö, Britten. 1999. Words in Ama. Uppsala: Uppsala University, D-level.

Kossmann, Maarten. 2013. A grammatical sketch of Ghadames Berber (Libya). Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.

Rosés Labrada, Jorge E. 2015. The Mako language: Vitality, Grammar and Classification. London, Ontario: University of Western Ontario. (Doctoral dissertation.)

Related Features

• GB024 What is the order of numeral and noun in the NP?
• GB025 What is the order of adnominal demonstrative and noun?
• GB065 What is the pragmatically unmarked order of adnominal possessor and possessed noun?
• GB203 What is the order of the adnominal collective universal quantifier (‘all’) and the noun?

Patron

Jay Latarche and Jeremy Collins