Monday, November 9, 2015

Detail #231: A Noun Complex

So, let's consider a language that has fairly morphologically simple nouns: maybe they mark one or two things - but preferrably at most one of those things at a time.

But the noun phrase has a thing going for it that is more complicated. The article. The article bears the brunt of morphological marking, and this to an extent that far surpasses German.

First, we'll posit a historical origin: nouns that have been grammaticalized. So, instead of "actor" vs "actress", you have "boy actor" vs "girl actor". Thus, what now are articles, historically have been nouns. There is a fair share of such former nouns, and the noun classes can be somewhat overlapping.

Possessors of the noun have a congruence marker in the article. Certain nominal possessors may be incorporated into the article, but some will just have a possessive pronominal suffix on the article. Certain adjectives can also be incorporated, but only one at a time.

A number of morphemes corresponding to different types of indefinites and definites also go on the article. 

What more can we throw onto these auxiliary nouns to get a sort of "polysynthetic noun phrase" going? Case could be an obvious thing, but let's not go there. Other kinds of relations than possession? E.g. spatial relations with regards to other nouns and deictics?

A noun that is represented by a pronominal suffix in "another noun's article" does not require an article of its own, unless it has further embedded relations (i.e. a possessor of a possessor or somesuch).

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