Language Typology and Syntactic Description, Volume I: Clause Structure, Second edition
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Lgg Typology, Synt Description v. I - Clause structure
Matthew S. Dryer
of nouns, it does not follow that they are not prepositions, for they may have acquired syntactic properties distinct from other nouns that reflect the relational functions associated with adpositions in other languages. The processes of grammaticization whereby locational nouns become adpo- sitions may eventually lead to loss of some nominal morphology. For example, in Kham (Watters (2002)), a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Nepal, the normal genitive construction involves simultaneous genitive case marking on the genitive noun and pronominal possessive marking on the possessed noun, as in (57). (57) baza-e o-k ə r bird-gen 3sg.poss-wing ‘a bird’s wing’ There is a class of locational nouns which occur with both possessive prefixes and nominal case suffixes, as in (58). (58) a. n ə -ch˜ı:-k ə b. o- ŋ ah-t ə 2sg-behind-at 3sg-front-on ‘behind you’ ‘ahead of it’ However, when they occur with a dependent noun, they do not occur with the possessive prefix, nor does the dependent noun occur in the genitive, as in (59). (59) a. h˜a: kh˜ı- -:-k ə b. juhr d˜u:h-l ə cliff foot-at boulder beneath-in ‘at the foot of the cliff’ ‘under the boulder’ Thus, despite their retaining some morphological characteristics as nouns, their lack of nominal morphology in some contexts reflects their partial grammati- cization as postpositions. Synchronically, we can say that these words form a subclass of nouns, which we can call postpositions. 3.3.4 Languages without adpositions While the majority of languages of the world appear to have adpositions, there are many languages that do not have words of this sort. In many Australian languages, this function is served by case affixes, as in the Martuthunira example cited above in (48). Such languages are not exceptions to the claim that OV languages tend to have postpositions. This claim is intended to be interpreted as saying that if a language is OV and if it has adpositions, then it will normally have postpositions rather than prepositions. 3.4 Identification of genitives 3.4.1 Alienable versus inalienable possession There is relatively little cross-linguistic difficulty in identifying genitive constructions. One observation Word order 87 that must be made, however, is that some languages employ distinct construc- tions for alienable and inalienable possession (see Dryer in vol. ii, chapter 3), and, in a subset of these languages, the order of genitive and noun is differ- ent. For example, in Mallakmallak (Birk (1976)), a Daly language of north Australia, inalienable genitives employ GN order, as in (60a), while alienable genitives employ NG order, as in (60b). (60) a. yin y a puntu b. muyin y yin y a-n¨o man head dog man-gen ‘the man’s head’ ‘the man’s dog’ 3.4.2 Lexical genitives versus possessive pronouns Just as it is the case that discussions of the order of subject and verb are understood to refer to the order of lexical subject and verb, so too when we refer to the order of genitive and noun in a language, it is assumed that what is meant is a lexical genitive, one headed by a noun, rather than a pronominal genitive (also known as a possessive pronoun). In the majority of languages, the order is the same for lexical genitives and possessive pronouns (Poss), but in some languages their order is different. In French, for example, the order of lexical genitive and noun is NG, as expected of it as a VO language and as is illustrated in (61a), while the order of possessive pronoun and noun is PossN, as in (61b). (61) a. le livre de Jean b. son livre the book of Jean 3sg.poss book N G Poss N ‘Jean’s book’ ‘his/her book’ Maranungku, a Daly language of north Australia (Tryon (1970b)), exhibits the opposite pattern, with the lexical genitive preceding the noun (at least for inalienable possession), as in (62a), and the possessive pronoun following the noun, as in (62b). (62) a. Micky piyamerr b. piya ngany Micky hair head my G N N Poss ‘Micky’s hair’ ‘my head’ Download 1.59 Mb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
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