TAM-inflected nominals

[Rachel Nordlinger]

Matthew Dryer's response to my original query on tense-inflected nominals
was extremely helpful and much appreciated.  I agree that it is important
to separate the different types of phenomena, although I was intentionally
vague in my original message so as not to risk overly restricting my data
sample from the outset.  However, I disagree with Matthew's claim that
Kayardild modal case can be considered an example of his second type -- the
appearance of clause-level information as clitics on nominals.  In reading
Evans' grammar of Kayardild I can find no evidence that would support an
analysis of these case markers as clitics rather than affixes....but
perhaps I would be better to leave it to Nick to respond further to this if
he thinks it's necessary.

Thanks to everyone who responded (so promptly!) to my query,

Rachel

At 4:36 AM -0400 28/10/99, Matthew S Dryer wrote:
>In response to Rachel Nordlinger's query "Does anyone know of any
>languages in which clausal information such as tense, aspect, mood or
>polarity is encoded on nominals or free pronouns (either in place of, or
>in addition to marking on the verb)?":
>
>I do think that it is necessary to distinguish a number of distinct
>candidates for phenomena of this sort, which it may be a mistake to lump
>together.  One is instances in which clause level information can show up
>inflectionally on nominal elements in the clause regardless of their
>grammatical role in the clause.  The Supyire pronouns are an instance of
>this.  Nouns in Apurina, an Arawakan language, can inflect for tense,
>though it is possible that this should be analysed as an instance of the
>next type.
>
>A second type is one in which clause level information can show up as
>clitics on nominal elements in the clause, where the fact that it shows up
>on the nominal element is in some sense accidental and independent of the
>fact that the host is a nominal element: second position clitics are a
>case of this, and the phenomena in Kayardild might be viewed as a special
>case of this.
>
>A third type is one in which clause-level information shows up on nominal
>elements only when they are in some sense serving a predicative function
>within the clause.  Lango is an instance of this.  A possibly distinct
>subtype of this occurs in some Wakashan languages, like Nootka, in which
>one can find such marking on nouns apparently occurring in different
>grammatical roles but where the nouns can be analysed as predicative under
>an analysis in which all occurrences of nouns in the language are
>predicative.
>
>A fourth type involves words associated with verbs that can be analysed as
>part of a verb complex which vary for pronominal features of the subject
>(or sometimes the object) and for other clause-level information.  While
>such words are sometimes described in grammars as pronouns, they typically
>occur in a fixed position before the verb that is distinct from the
>position in which independent noun phrases occur and are thus are not
>really pronouns inflecting for tense or aspect any more than they are
>tense or aspect words inflecting for pronominal features of the subject of
>the clause, and in that sense are not really nominal elements.  These
>elements are ones for which the GB notion of "INFL" seems appropriate.  I
>believe that Hausa phenomenon is an instance of this type.
>
>Matthew Dryer



**************************************************************************

Dr. Rachel Nordlinger
Dept. of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
University of Melbourne
Victoria 3010
AUSTRALIA
ph. +61-(0)3-9344-4215, fax. +61-(0)3-9344-8990