[Lingtyp] The type "la bellezza di cento euro"

[Guillaume Jacques]

Dear Raffaele,

In Japhug (Sino-Tibetan, Rgyalrongic), we find exactly the same type of
structure (though not with the same word order within the noun phrase as in
Romance languages), I call these nouns "property nouns", they are
inalienably possessed nouns, which take a possessive prefix (1, 2). They
are mainly derogative.

(1) ɯ-do
3sɡ.poss-old.thing
"an old thing"

(2) ɯ-ɴqra
3sɡ.poss-broken.one
"something broken"


(3) and (4) illustrate the construction that you are lookinf for:

(3) nɯŋa  ɯ-do
cow 3sɡ.poss-old.thing
"An old cow" = "An old thing of a cow"

(4) kʰa ɯ-ɴqra
house 3sɡ.poss-broken.one
"A shabby house, a house in ruin" = "A broken thing of a house"

This is the most common possessive construction in Japhug, encoded by a
possessive prefix on the possessum.

See the description pp 119-122, p 792 of the Japhug grammar:
https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/295

For instance example (22) p. 119, which contains (4)

Best wishes,

Guillaume



Le ven. 31 mai 2024 à 10:39, Raffaele Simone via Lingtyp <
lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org> a écrit :

> Dear colleagues and friends,
>
>
>
> in Italian and other Romance languages there is a binominal NP structure
> as in the following examples:
>
>
>
> italian
>
>    1. Ho speso *la bellezza* di cento euro
>
> I have spent *the beauty* of one hundred euros
>
> “I spent a good one hundred euros”
>
>    2. Ho pagato questa casa *la miseria* di centomila euro
>
> I have paid this house *the misery* of one hundred thousand euros.
>
> “I paid a paltry one hundred thousand euros for this house”
>
>    3. Ha sposato *un tesoro* di ragazzo
>
> She has married *a treasure* of boy
>
> “She married a darling boy”
>
>    4. Faccio *uno schifo* di lavoro
>
> I do *a crap* of job
>
> “I have a crap job”
>
>
>
>             The NP is structured as follows:
>
>
>
> A specifier + N1, a sort of “Light Noun” indicating a positive or negative
> property (*bellezza*, *tesoro*, *schifo* ecc.) of N2 + *di *+ N2, a noun
> representing the “semantic phrase head”, which the property indicated by N1
> refers to.
>
>
>
> From the predicative point of view, the quality attributed to N2 is not
> encoded by an adjective or sim. but is transferred to N1.
>
> Other constraints:
>
> a. the list of the possible N1 is very limited;
>
> b. some N1 (as *bellezza* in 1, *miseria *in 2) don’t indicate a property
> but refer to an amount, so working as indefinite quantifiers.
>
>
>
> Could you indicate to me similar NP structures in other languages?
>
> Thanks.
>
>
>
> Raffaele (Simone)
>
>
>
> PS For Light Words, See Simone, R. & F. Masini. 2014. “On Light Nouns”. In
> Simone, R. & F. Masini (eds). *Word Classes*. 51-74. Amsterdam &
> Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
>
>
>
> ==============
>
> Emeritus Professor, Università Roma Tre
>
> Hon C Lund University
>
> Membre de l'Académie Royale de Belgique
>
> Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de France
>
> Accademico (corrispondente) della Crusca
>
> Prix de l'Institut de France-Fondation Bonnefous 2022
>
> ===============
>
> Attività e pubblicazioni // Activity and publications
> http://uniroma3.academia.edu/RaffaeleSimone
>
>
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-- 
Guillaume Jacques

Directeur de recherches
CNRS (CRLAO) - EPHE- INALCO
https://scholar.google.fr/citations?user=1XCp2-oAAAAJ&hl=fr
https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/295
<http://cnrs.academia.edu/GuillaumeJacques>
http://panchr.hypotheses.org/
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