positioning of 'property concepts' in the NP

[Carol Genetti]

Dear Fritz,

Manange (a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Nepal) might have what you are 
looking for. There are two classes of adjectives, "simple" adjectives, 
which don't inflect like verbs or nouns, and "verb-like" adjectives, which 
(unsurprisingly) do inflect like verbs. Both of these precede the noun 
within the noun phrase, whereas regular verbs that modify nouns are put 
into relative clauses which are post-nominal.

The data for this comes from Kristine Hildebrandt's extensive fieldwork. 
Details can be found in the following reference:

Genetti, Carol and Kristine Hildebrandt. 2004. “The two adjective classes 
in Manange.” Co-Author Kristine Hildebrandt. Dixon, R. M. W. and Alexandra 
Aikhenvald (eds.) Adjective Classes: A cross-linguistic typology. 
(Explorations in linguistic typology 1.) Oxford: Oxford University Press. 
74-96.

Hope this helps!

Yours,
Carol



--On Monday, March 29, 2010 12:56 PM -0700 Frederick J Newmeyer 
<fjn at U.WASHINGTON.EDU> wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> I wonder if I might deflect the discussion from academic publishing for a
> moment. I am looking for an example of a language manifesting something
> very specific -- a language which might or might not exist:
>
> 1. In this language 'property concepts' (to use a neutral term) are
> encoded in part by a distinct category 'Adjective' and also by what are
> uncontroversially Nouns or Verbs in terms of their catgeory assignments.
>
> 2. In this language, within the Noun Phrase, Adjective modifiers of the
> Noun appear on one side of the Noun that they modify, whereas Noun or
> Verb modifiers appear on the opposite side of the Noun that they modify.
>
> Does anybody know an example of such a language?
>
> Thanks!
>
> --fritz
>
> Frederick J. Newmeyer
> Professor Emeritus, University of Washington
> Adjunct Professor, University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser
> University
> [for my postal address, please contact me by e-mail]