19.3545, Qs: Possession/Modification by Simple Juxtaposition

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LINGUIST List: Vol-19-3545. Thu Nov 20 2008. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 19.3545, Qs: Possession/Modification by Simple Juxtaposition

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1)
Date: 20-Nov-2008
From: Andrew Spencer < spena at essex.ac.uk >
Subject: Possession/Modification by Simple Juxtaposition

 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:35:31
From: Andrew Spencer [spena at essex.ac.uk]
Subject: Possession/Modification by Simple Juxtaposition

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We are interested in finding languages that express possession and
adjectival modification in the same way, namely, by means of pure
juxtaposition, without any other morphosyntactic marking (agreement,
adpositions, case marking etc.). In other words, we're looking for
languages with the following construction types (head-initial/head-final;
the linear order doesn't matter to us and the language doesn't have to have
a consistent head position):

good book: book good // good book
the name of (the) boy: name [(the) boy] // (the) boy name
Gwen's book/mother: book/mother Gwen// Gwen book/mother

A language which is close to what we're looking for is Spoken Welsh
(head-initial):

good book:                  

llyfr     da
book   good

the name of the boy:    

enw     y     bachgen      
name   the  boy
                                     
the name of  a boy:      

enw      bachgen
name   boy                                    


Gwen's book: llyfr    Gwen
Gwen's mother: mam  Gwen

However, in Welsh, adjectives take the soft mutation when they modify
FEM.SG nouns, so this isn't a 'pure' example of the language type we're
looking for.

If you know of a language with these properties please contact Andrew
Spencer: spena at essex.ac.uk.
We'll put together a synopsis of the replies.

Andrew Spencer, University of Essex
Irina Nikolaeva, School of Oriental and African Studies 

Linguistic Field(s): Typology







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