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Re: THEORY: two questions

From:DOUGLAS KOLLER <laokou@...>
Date:Tuesday, March 28, 2000, 2:26
From: "Matt Pearson"

> For example, in a verb-final head-marking language, > "The boy gave me the books" might come out: > > boy books 3sS-1sIO-3pDO-gave > > with no case marking on the nouns, covert pronouns, and > extensive agreement on the verb ("3sS" = 3s subject > agreement, "1sIO" = 1s indirect object agreement, and > "3pDO" = 3p direct object agreement). > > In a verb-final dependent-marking language, the same > sentence might come out: > > boy-NOM me-DAT books-ACC gave > > with case marking on the nouns (and overt pronouns), and > no agreement (or impoverished agreement) on the verb.
Thanks Matt. That means Géarthnuns is like Japanese (which is what I thought), that is, verbal final, dependent marking (sub-verb agreement does not exist). Funny thing is, though, Géarthnuns took its shape long before I knew squat about Japanese. And as with other classifications like SVO, etc., I imagine there must be degrees of 'tween examples; I mean, Latin seems to have a mix of both worlds (more dep than head, but less dep than Japanese, say). Hungarian? Fortunately, Géarthnuns fits neatly into a category (phew). Kou