GB184
Adnominal property words semantically roughly correspond to adjectives in languages that have a separate adjective class. They can agree in number with the head noun even if the head noun is not overtly marked for number. Additionally, some languages exhibit a relativized form of the adnominal property word, which also expresses agreement with the noun it modifies. This construction is included within the scope of this feature.
- Code 1 if at least some adnominal property words, including those in their relativized forms, overtly agree with the number of the head noun they modify.
- Code 0 if the author states that there is no agreement, or if there is no evidence of this in the data. This applies to both regular and relativized forms.
Yeri (ISO 639-3: yev, Glottolog: yapu1240)
Coded 1 (Wilson 2017: 129–132). Adjectives show plural agreement with their head noun, even if the head noun does not have a plural marker.
neigal sɨpekɨ-i yot-u-i ∅-o tapo.
cuscus little-PL DEM-MDIST-PL 3pl-stay.REAL tree.hole
‘Those small cuscuses live in the hole of the tree.’
Barambu (ISO 639-3: brm, Glottolog: bara1361)
Coded 1. The plural prefix is occasionally attached to adjectives. Plurality may also be shown through reduplication.
ä-gú̹ɽú̹-gu̹ɽu̹ a-ŋguà
PL-short-REDUP PL-tree
‘short trees’ (Tucker & Bryan 1966: 146)
Kenga (ISO 639-3: kyq, Glottolog: keng1240)
Coded 1. In Kenga, the plural clitic can attach to the end of the noun phrase, so also to the adjective (Vandame 1968: 18–21).
Corbett, Greville G. 2000. Number. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tucker, Archibald N. & Margaret A. Bryan. 1966. Linguistic analyses: The Non-Bantu languages of North-Eastern Africa. (Handbook of African Languages.) London: Oxford University Press.
Vandame, Charles. 1968. Grammaire Kenga. (Études Linguistiques, 2.) Paris: Afrique et Language.
Wilson, Jennifer. 2017. A grammar of Yeri: A Torricelli language of Papua New Guinea. Buffalo: State University of New York. (Doctoral dissertation.)
- GB185 Can an adnominal demonstrative agree with the noun in number?
- GB186 Can an article agree with the noun in number?
Jay Latarche and Jeremy Collins