Re: NG-NA correlation ...

Andreas Johansson sikyal:

> In the languages I know of, noun-genitive syntax seems to correlate with noun-
> adjective, and similarly genitive-noun with adjective-noun. Is this
> a "universal" tendency, or just an artifact of the smallish sample?
From what I know it's a statistical universal, but not an absolute. (Like
the statistical universal that languages have exactly one rhotic :). It
makes sense, because both noun-genitive and noun-adjective are instances
of the general pattern head-modifier.

> I'm wondering because I'm trying to decide on Meghean's behaviour on this
> point. Of course, to complexify matters, Meghean uses noun-genitive syntax, but
> possessive pronominal clitics go before their nouns (as in _me-ghean_, lit "our-
> words").
That's typical. I say go with it.


--
Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu
http://students.washington.edu/jaspax/
http://students.washington.edu/jaspax/blog

Jesus asked them, "Who do you say that I am?"

And they answered, "You are the eschatological manifestation of the ground
of our being, the kerygma in which we find the ultimate meaning of our
interpersonal relationship."

And Jesus said, "What?"

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