Publikation: Bidrag til bog/antologi/rapport/proceeding › Bidrag til bog/antologi › Forskning › peer review
When can a language have adjectives? An implicational universal. / Rijkhoff, Jan.
Approaches to the Typology of Word Classes. red. / Petra M. Vogel; Bernard Comrie. Hardback. udg. Berlin/New York : De Gruyter Mouton, 1999. s. 217–257 (Empirical Appoaches to Language Typology, Bind 23).Publikation: Bidrag til bog/antologi/rapport/proceeding › Bidrag til bog/antologi › Forskning › peer review
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TY - CHAP
T1 - When can a language have adjectives? An implicational universal
AU - Rijkhoff, Jan
PY - 1999
Y1 - 1999
N2 - Data from a representative sample of the world's languages indicate that adjectives only occur in languages in which the numeral is in a direct construction with a noun (i.e. the numeral does not occur with a sortal classifier). In my sample Hmong Njua is the only counterexample, but I will show that Hmong Njua classifiers have assumed other functions and that the language has developed some kind of regular number marking (which is unusual for a classifier language). This suggests that Hmong Njua does not use the kind of noun that is commonly employed in a classifier language. Ultimately I will argue that the occurrence of adjectives as a major word class is not so much related to the absence of classifiers, but rather depends on a semantic property of the nouns in that language. A language can only have adjectives if the nouns in that language are lexically specified for the feature [+Shape], which means that the properties that are designated by these nouns are characterized as having a spatial boundary.
AB - Data from a representative sample of the world's languages indicate that adjectives only occur in languages in which the numeral is in a direct construction with a noun (i.e. the numeral does not occur with a sortal classifier). In my sample Hmong Njua is the only counterexample, but I will show that Hmong Njua classifiers have assumed other functions and that the language has developed some kind of regular number marking (which is unusual for a classifier language). This suggests that Hmong Njua does not use the kind of noun that is commonly employed in a classifier language. Ultimately I will argue that the occurrence of adjectives as a major word class is not so much related to the absence of classifiers, but rather depends on a semantic property of the nouns in that language. A language can only have adjectives if the nouns in that language are lexically specified for the feature [+Shape], which means that the properties that are designated by these nouns are characterized as having a spatial boundary.
M3 - Book chapter
SN - 3110161028
T3 - Empirical Appoaches to Language Typology
SP - 217
EP - 257
BT - Approaches to the Typology of Word Classes
A2 - Vogel, Petra M.
A2 - Comrie, Bernard
PB - De Gruyter Mouton
CY - Berlin/New York
ER -