Re: Nouns, verbs, adjectives... and why they're p

Nik wrote :

Mathias M. Lassailly wrote:
> > Take my favourite example : *the nice dancer* = the agent who dances
> > well or the person who is nice.
>
> Are there any *natural* languages that distinguish those two, or similar
> ambiguities?
>
It's no *ambi*guity,  but *ambi*valence (speaking of *valency* :-).
As Christophe points it in his Azak grammar, Old French had an accusative
genitive. Modern French does with *un grand homme* vs. *un homme grand*. But
you may be right : I don't know any contemporary language doing so. So thank
you for backing my viewpoint ;-).

Mathias


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