416 lines
20 KiB
Org Mode
416 lines
20 KiB
Org Mode
#+setupfile: ../headers
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* Syntax
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** Word Structure :noexport:
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** Word Classes
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*** Nouns :noexport:
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# - What are the distributional properties of nouns?
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# - What are the structural properties of nouns?
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# - What are the major formally distinct subcategories of nouns?
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# - What is the basic structure of the noun word (for polysynthetic
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# languages) and/or noun phrases (for more isolating languages)?
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**** Countables and Uncountables :noexport:
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**** Proper Nouns :noexport:
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*** Pronouns and Anaphoric Clitics :noexport:
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# - Does the language have free pronouns and/or anaphoric clitics?
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# (These are distinct from grammatical agreement.)
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# - Give a chart of the free pronouns and/or anaphoric clitics.
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**** Personal Pronouns
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**** Demonstrative Pronouns
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**** Possessive Pronouns
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*** Verbs :noexport:
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# - What are the distributional properties of verbs?
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# - What are the structural properties of verbs?
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# - What are the major subclasses of verbs?
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# - Describe the order of various verbal operators within the verbal
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# - word or verb phrase.
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# - Give charts of th
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# - tense/aspect/mode, etc. Indicate major allomorphic variants.
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# - Are directional and/or locational notions expressed in the verb or
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# - verb phrase at all?
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# - Is this operation obligatory, i.e. does one member of the
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# paradigm have to occur in every finite verb or verb phrase?
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# - Is it productiv
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# verb stems, and does it have the same meaning with each one?
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# (Nothing is fully productive, but some operations are more
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# productive than others.)
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# - Is this operation primarily coded morphologically, analytically,
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# or lexically? Are there any exceptions to the general case?
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# - Where in the verb phrase or verbal word is this operation likely
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# to appear? Can it occur in more than one place?
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**** Verbal Structure
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**** Verbal Derivations
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**** Verbal Inflexions
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*** Modifiers
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# - If you posit a morphosyntactic category of adjectives, give
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# evidence for not grouping theseforms with the verbs or nouns. What
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# characterizes a form as being an adjective in this language?
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# - How can you characterize semantically the class of concepts coded
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# by this formal category?
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# - Do adjectives agr
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# noun class)?
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# - What kind of syst
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# - How high can a fluent native speaker count without resorting
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# either to words from another language or to a generic word like
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# /many/? Exemplify the system up to this point.
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# - Do numerals agree with their head nouns (number, case, noun
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# class, ...)?
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**** Descriptive Adjectives :noexport:
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**** Non-Numeral Quantifiers :noexport:
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**** Numerals
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*** Adverbs :noexport:
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# - What characterikes a form as being an adverb in this language? If
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# you posit a distinct class of adverbs, argue for why these forms
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# should not be treated as nouns, verbs, or adjectives.
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# - For each kind of adverb listed in this section, list a few members
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# of the type, and specify whether there are any restrictions
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# relavite to that type, e.g. where they can come in a clause, any
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# morphemes common to the type, etc.
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# - Are any of these classes of adverbs related to older
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# complement-taking (matrix) verbs?
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*** Adpositions :noexport:
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*** Grammatical Particules :noexport:
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** Constituants Order Typology :noexport:
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*** Constituants Order in Main Clauses
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# - What is the neutral order of free elements in the unit?
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# - Are there variations?
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# - How do the variant orders function?
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# - Specific to the main clause constituent order: What is the
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# pragmatically neutral order of constituents (A/S, P, and V) in
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# basic clauses of the language?
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*** Constituants Order in Nominal Clauses
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# - Describe the order(s) of elements in the noun phrase.
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*** Constituants Order in Verbal Clauses
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# - Where do auxliari
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# verb?
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# - Where do verb-phrase adverbs occur with respect to the verb and
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# auxiliaries?
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*** Adpositional Phrases
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# - Is the language dominantly prepositional or post-positional? Give
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# examples.
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# - Do many adpositions come from nouns or verbs?
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*** Comparatives
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# - Does the language have one or more grammaticalized comparative
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# constructions? If so, what is the order of the standard, the
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# marker and the quality by which an item is compared to the
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# standard?
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*** Questions
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# - In yes/no questions, if there is a question particle, where does
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# it occur?
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# - In information qu
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** Structure of a Nominal Group
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*** Composed Words :noexport:
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# - Is there noun-noun compounding that results in a noun (e.g.
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# /windshield/)?
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# - How do you know it is compounding?
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# - Is there noun-verb (or verb-noun) compounding that results in a
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# noun (e.g. /pickpocket/, /scarecrow/)?
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# - Are these process
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# can-opener)? How common is compounding?
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*** Denominalization :noexport:
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# - Are there any processes (productive or not) that form a verb from
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# a noun?
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# - An adjective from a noun?
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# - An adverb from a noun?
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*** Numbers :noexport:
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# - Is number express
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# - Is the distinction between singular and non-singular obligatory,
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# optional, or completely absent in the noun phrase?
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# - If number marking is “optional”, when does it tend to occur, and
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# when does it tend not to occur?
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# - If number marking is obligatory, is number overtly expressed for
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# all noun phrases or only some subclasses of noun phrases, such as
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# animate?
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# - What non-singular distinctions are there?
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*** Grammatical Case
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# - Do nouns exhibit morphological case?
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# - If so, what are the cases? (The functions of the cases will be
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# elaborated in lat
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**** Cases in Modern Eittlandic
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Although seldom visible, as described in [[file:./syntax.md#case-marking][Case Marking]], cases still
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remain part of the Eittlandic grammar, expressed through its syntax
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rather than explicit marking on its nouns and adjectives. Four
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different grammatical cases exist in this language: the *nominative*,
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*accusative*, *genitive*, and *dative* case.
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- The *nominative* case represents the subject of a sentence, that is,
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the subject of intransitive clauses and the agent of transitive
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clauses. As we’ll see below, it is morphologically marked only in
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dialects other than Standard Eittlandic, and only if the word is a
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strong masculine word.
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- On the other hand *accusative*, like Old Norse, usually marks the
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object of a verb, but it can also express time-related ideas such as
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a duration in time, or after some prepositions. It is also the
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default case when a noun has no clear status in a clause, and it can
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as such serve as a vocative.
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- *Dative* usually marks indirect objects of verbs in Old Norse, though
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it can also often mark direct objects depending on the verb used.
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**** Case Marking
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Although present in Early Old Norse, the use of grammatical cases has
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been on the decline since the Great Vowel Shift (see [[file:phonology.md#great-vowel-shift][Phonology: Great
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Vowel Shift]]). Due to the general loss of word-final short vowels and
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to regularization of its nouns, Eittlandic lost almost all of weak
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nouns’ inflexions and a good amount in its strong nouns’ inflexions.
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On top of this, the root of most nouns got regularized, getting rid of
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former umlauts. Hence, while in Old Norse one might find the table
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below presented in Cleasby and Vigfusson (1874), Modern Eittlandic is
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simplified to the table following it.
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#+name: tbl:old-norse-noun-inflexions
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#+caption: 1st declension of strong nouns and declensions of masculine weak nouns in Old Norse
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| / | <r> | | | | |
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| | | Strong Masculine | Strong Feminine | Strong Neuter | Weak Masculine |
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|---+------------+------------------+-----------------+---------------+----------------|
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| | Sing. Nom. | heim-r | tíð | skip | tím-i |
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| | Acc. | heim | tíð | skip | tím-a |
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| | Gen. | heim-s | tíð-ar | skip-s | tím-a |
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| | Dat. | heim-i | tíð | skip-i | tím-a |
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| | Plur. Nom. | heim-ar | tíð-ir | skip | tím-ar |
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| | Acc. | heim-a | tíð-ir | skip | tím-a |
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| | Gen. | heim-a | tíð-a | skip-a | tím-a |
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| | Dat. | heim-um | tíð-um | skip-um | tím-um |
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#+name: tbl:eittlandic-example-noun-inflexions
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#+caption: Declensions for strong and weak nouns in Modern Eittlandic
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| / | <r> | | | |
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| | | Strong Common | Strong Neuter | Weak Nouns |
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|---+------------+---------------+---------------+------------|
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| | Sing. Nom. | heim-r | skip | tím |
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| | Acc. | heim | skip | tím |
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| | Gen. | heim-ar | skip-s | tím-s |
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| | Dat. | heim | skip | tím |
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| | Plur. Nom. | heim-r | skip | tím-r |
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| | Acc. | heim | skip | tím |
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| | Gen. | heim-ar | skip-s | tím-s |
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| | Dat. | heim-um | skip-um | tím-um |
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As you can see, a good amount of declensions disappeared from nouns,
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with only four marked cases for strong common nouns and two for strong
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neuter and weak nouns. The declension system completely merged weak
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nouns which are no longer distinguished by gender. Strong masculine
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and strong feminine also got merged into strong common.
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Declensions are no longer productive in almost all Modern Eittlandic
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dialects. They are still mostly used in formal and written speech, but
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they are less and less used in less formal circumstances and in oral
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speech. The Royal Academy for Literature, which authored Standard
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Eittlandic, even recommends not using grammatical cases when using
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this dialect as they are reduntand with other syntactic strategies.
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While the recommendation is mostly followed, speakers still tend to
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use the singular genetive declension oraly. Younger folks at the time
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of writing even tend to regularize it as /-ar/ for strong neuter and
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weak nouns.
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The only exception to declensions no longer being productive is in the
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Hylfjaltr Kingdom’s exclave in southern Eittland where speakers of its
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local dialect tend instead to favor strong nouns for newer terms.
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Hence, while most dialects agree on “internet” (pl.nom /internetr/,
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pl.dat /internetum/) being a weak noun, this dialect treats it as either
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a strong feminine (sg.gen /internetar/, pl.nom&acc /internetr/, pl.dat
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/internetum/) or a strong neuter (sg.gen /internets/, pl.dat /internetum/)
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--- the difference is due to subdivisions in said dialect, mainly
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between rural and urban areas favoring the former and the latter
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respectively.
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There are some regular exceptions to the declension system. The first
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one, inherited from Old Norse, is the /-r/ suffix becoming /-n/ or /-l/ when
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a noun ends with an «n» or an «l» respectively, hence the table below
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showing the declensions of strong masculine /himn/ (/heaven/) and strong
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feminine /hafn/ (/harbour/, /haven/).
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#+name: tbl:irregular-noun-declensions
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| <r> | | |
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| | himn | hafn |
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|------------+--------+--------|
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| Sing. Nom. | himnn | hafnn |
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| Acc. | himn | hafn |
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| Gen. | himnar | hafnar |
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| Dat. | himn | hafn |
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| Plur. Nom. | himnn | hafnn |
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| Acc. | himn | hafn |
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| Gen. | himnar | hafnar |
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| Dat. | himnum | hafnum |
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During the last five centuries, the root of the word got regularized
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so that only one or two forms are allowed. Due to umlaut or ablaut, it
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is possible the main vowel of a word changes between its singular and
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plural form, even sometimes affecting its dative form. These changes
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are due to old vowels long gone since --- with most even gone by the
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time of Old Norse. These changes mainly remains in a few common words.
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The table below gives some examples of such irregularities. These
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words are marked as irregular in the dictionary.
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#+name: tbl:irregularities-root-nouns
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| <r> | | | | |
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| | kettle (m.) | foot (m.) | book (f.) | water (n.) |
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|------------+-------------+-----------+-----------+------------|
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| Sing. Nom. | ketll | fótr | bók | vatn |
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| Gen. | ketl | fót | bók | vatn |
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| Acc. | ketlar | fótar | bókar | vatn |
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| Dat. | ketl | fót | bók | vatn |
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| Plur. Nom. | katll | fœtr | bœkr | vótnn |
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| Acc. | katl | fœt | bœkr | vótn |
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| Gen. | katl | fœt | bœk | vótn |
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| Dat. | katlum | fótum | bókum | vótnum |
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*** Articles and Demonstratives
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# - Do noun phrases have articles?
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# - If so, are they obligatory or optional, and under what
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# circumstances do they occur?
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# - Are they separate words, or bound morphemes?
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# - Is there a class of classes of demonstratives as distinct from
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# articles?
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# - How many degrees of distance are there in the system of
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# demontsratives?
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# - Are there other distinctions beside distances?
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When the noun of a nominal group is not a mass noun or a proper noun,
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an article must accompany it, except for indefinite plural nouns.
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**** Indefinite Article
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The indefinite article is /einn/, the same term as /one/ in Eittlandic. It
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agrees in declension with its noun, though it is to be noted its
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declension is irregular, as seen in table below. Similarly, other
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numerals have declensions as discussed in [[file:word-structure-and-classes.md#numerals][Word Classes: Numerals]].
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#+name: tbl:declension-einn
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| | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter |
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|------+-----------+----------+--------|
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| Nom. | einn | ein | eit |
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| Acc. | ein | ein | eit |
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| Dat. | ein | einn | eits |
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| Gen. | einn | ein | eit |
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**** Definite articles
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As in other scandinavian languages, definite articles in Eittlandic
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act as suffixes to the noun and fully replace its declension as it has
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case marking itself. The full declension table of definite articles
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can be found in the table below. As we can see, the definite articles
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underwent an important regularization as well as merging strong neuter
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and weak nouns together.
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#+name: tbl:definite-articles
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| / | <r> | | |
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| | | Strong Common | Strong Neuter and Weak Nouns |
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|---+------------+---------------+------------------------------|
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| | Sing. Nom. | -(i)nn | -(i)t |
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| | Acc. | -(i)n | -(i)t |
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| | Gen. | -(i)ns | -(i)ts |
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| | Dat. | -(i)n | -(i)t |
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| | Plur. Nom. | -(i)nn | -(i)tr |
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| | Acc. | -(i)n | -(i)t |
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| | Gen. | -(i)n | -(i)t |
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| | Dat. | -(i)num | -(i)tum |
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The initial /i/ is only used when using the definite articles as a
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suffix would cause a consonant cluster forbidden by Eittlandic
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phonology, otherwise it is omitted. An example of the former case is
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with /vatn/ (/water/) which becomes /vatnits/ when in its definite singular
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genitive form, while /øy/ (/island/) becomes /øyns/ in the same form. Like
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the indefinite article, the suffix agrees in gender, agreeing either
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with strong masculine or feminine words (or as established before,
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strong common) or with strong neuter and weak nouns.
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The use of definite articles with nouns is further discussed in
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[[file:./syntax.md#definiteness][Definiteness]].
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*** Definiteness
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Definiteness in Eittlandic serves multiple purposes. Its most obvious
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one is to distinguish between an indefinite and a definite entity, as
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in English /a dog/ or /the dog/, respectively /einn hundr/ and /hundinn/, as
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discussed in [[file:./syntax.md#articles-and-demonstratives][Articles and Demonstratives]].
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However, definiteness is also necessary with suffixed possessives and
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demonstrative.
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*** Possessives
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# - How are possessors expressed in the noun phrase?
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# - Do nouns agree with their possessors? Do possessors agree with
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# possessed nouns? Neither, or both?
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# - Is there a distinction between alienable and inalienable
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# possesson?
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# - Are there other types of possession?
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# - When the possessor is a full noun, where does it usually come with
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# respect to the possessed noun?
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*** Gender
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# - Is there a noun class system?
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# - What are the classes and how are they manifested in the noun
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# phrase?
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# - What dimension of reality is most central to the noun class system
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# (e.g. animacy, shape, function, etc.)? What other dimensions are
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# relevant?
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# - Do the classifiers occur with numerals? Adjectives? Verbs?
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# - What is their function in these contexts?
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Eittlandic inherited from Old Norse a gender system divided into three
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genders: male, female, and neuter. Although the number of elements
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marking it declined during its evolution, Eittlandic still marks
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gender in its strong nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and to a certain
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degree in its articles. However, as mentioned in [[file:./syntax.md#case-marking][Case Marking]], case
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marking and by extensions gender marking is slowly disappearing in
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Modern Eittlandic nouns and adjectives.
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Due to the presence of declensions with strong nouns and adjectives,
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its pronouns, and to a certain degree different articles, it can still
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be said Eittlandic is a gendered language, although it doesn’t hold
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much importance in its grammar anymore. Since strong nouns aren’t
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productive anymore and weak nouns lost all obvious gender differences,
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we can even consider gender as not productive anymore in Eittlandic
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and bound to eventually disappear. In fact, the loss of gender is even
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stronger in Standard Eittlandic due to the theoretical absence of
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declensions in this dialect.
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In case a strong noun is used with a strong adjective, both will agree
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in number and gender.
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+ Examples:
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- hvítr hund
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white.m.sg.acc dog.m.sg.acc
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white dog
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- langir tungir
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long.f.pl.acc tongues.f.pl.acc
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long tongues
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*** Diminution and Augmentation :noexport:
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# - Does the language employ diminutive and/or augmentative operators
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# in the noun or noun phrase?
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# - Questions to answ
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# - Is this operation obligatory, i.e. does one member of the
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# paradigm have to occur in every full noun phrase?
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# - Is it productiv
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# full noun phras
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# one? (Nothing is fully productive, but some operations are more
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# so than others.)
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# - Is this operation primarily expressed lexically,
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# morphologically, or analytically?
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# - Where in the noun phrase is this operation likely to be located?
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# - Can it occur in more than one place?
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** Predicates and Linked Constructions :noexport:
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*** Nominal Predicates
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# - How are proper inclusion and equative predicates formed?
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# - What restrictions are there, if any, on the TAM marking of such
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# clauses?
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*** Adjective Predicates
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# - How are predicate adjective formed? (Include a separate section on
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# predicate adjectives only if they are structurally distinct from
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# predicate nominals.)
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*** Locative Predicat
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# - How are locational clauses (or predicate locatives) formed?
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*** Existential Predicates
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# - How are existential clauses formed? (Give examples in different
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# tense/aspects, especially if there is significant variation.)
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# - How are negative
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# - Are there extended uses of existential morphology? (Provide
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# pointers to other relevant sections of the grammar.)
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*** Possessive Clauses
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# - How are possessiv
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** Verbal Groups Structure :noexport:
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** Intransitive Clauses :noexport:
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** Ditransitive Clauses :noexport:
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** Dependent Type Clauses :noexport:
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*** Non-Finite
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*** Semi-Finite
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*** Finite
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