question about patterns of N-A, A-N order

[Chris Butler]

You should definitely look at the work of Jan Rijkhoff, who has made a
detailed study of ordering in the NP within the framework of Functional
Grammar, and later Functional Discourse Grammar. The following references
should prove useful:

Rijkhoff, Jan (1990). Explaining word order in the noun phrase. Linguistics
28, 5-42.

Rijkhoff, Jan (1992). The Noun Phrase: A typological study of its form and
structure. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Amsterdam.

Rijkhoff, Jan (2002). The Noun Phrase. Oxford: Oxford University Press [an
expanded paperback edition was published in 2004].

Rijkhoff, Jan (2002). On the interaction of Linguistic Typology and
Functional Grammar. Functions of Language 9-2, 209-237 (Special issue: The
interaction of data, description, and theory in linguistics: Functional
perspectives. Guest editor: William B. McGregor).

Rijkhoff, Jan. 2004. Iconic and non-iconic word order patterns: on symmetry
in the NP and counter examples to Universal 20'. In Words in their Places: A
Festschrift for J. Lachlan Mackenzie, Henk Aertsen & Mike Hannay & Rod Lyall
(eds.), 169-180. Amsterdam: Free University, Faculty of Arts.

Rijkhoff, Jan (2008). Layers, levels and contexts in Functional Discourse
Grammar. In The Noun Phrase in Functional Discourse Grammar, Daniel García
Velasco & Jan Rijkhoff (eds.), 63-116. Berlin and New York: Mouton de
Gruyter.

Rijkhoff, Jan (2008) Descriptive and discourse-referential modifiers in a
layered model of the noun phrase. Linguistics  46(4), 789-829 (Special
issue: Layering in Functional Grammars. Eds: Christopher S. Butler and
Miriam Taverniers).

Chris Butler
Honorary Professor, Swansea University

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Clements, Joseph Clancy" <clements at indiana.edu>
To: <funknet at mailman.rice.edu>
Sent: Friday, October 10, 2008 11:11 PM
Subject: [FUNKNET] question about patterns of N-A, A-N order


In morphology, Cutler, Hawkins, et al (1985) found that Prep-VO languages
have prefixes and suffixes and Postp-OV languages have almost exclusively
suffixes.

It has been shown that adj order relative to its modified N does not pattern
with Prep-VO or Postp-OV languages. However, the following looks like a
pattern in the few languages I've worked with: there are languages that have
almost exclusively A-N order (e.g. English, German, the Neo-Aryan languages)
and languages with N-A order that also have A-N order (e.g. the Romance
languages).

My question: does anyone know of any studies on A-N/N-A order patterns in
the world's languages?

Any references would be greatly appreciated.

Clancy