Re: a grammar sketch...

Jörg Rhiemeier wrote:


> > I'm a little lost.  What does "head marking" mean?  Is that the same as
> > when languages put adjectives after the noun, etc.?  Or have I gotten
> > the terminology reversed?
>
>Head marking has nothing to do with word order, it means that the
>semantic
>relations between verbs and nouns are not marked on the noun by cases,
>but by agreement on the verb.  However, I do not understand head marking
>deeply enough to explain properly.  Marcus, please?
Head-marking vs. dependant-marking is more general than just noun-verb,
actually.  It is a general property of the language, showing up just about
anytime there are certain kinds of "relationships" between two elements,
such as between a verb and its subject and objects; or a noun and its
possessor.  The "head" is more-or-less the word that is in control of the
phrase (the verb or the possessed item) and the dependent is the thing
being "controlled" (the subject and object, and the possessor) (linguists
usually say the head "selects" or "licenses" the dependents.)

Examples from English (dependent-marking) and Telek (often head-marking)
[I'd use Mohawk which is a natlang that is exclusively head-marking, but
I'm not sure it would be worth the effort to construct/type-out the data
for present purposes]:
English:
I saw Sally-'s child
1s:NOM see:PT Sally-POSS child

The dependent "I" is marked as nominative, and "Sally" is marked as possessive.

Telek:
Sally s-emmy na-so-lesa-'ni
Sally AsP-child 1sA-AsP-less-PERF
'I saw Sally's child.'

The head _-emmy_ 'child' is marked as possessed and _-lesa-_ 'see' is
marked as first person singular agents, animate singular patient.

And yes, a language can be both.  "He sees" has both kinds of marking and
in Telek the above sentence could have also been "Sally s-emmy-yd
na-so-lesa-'ni" (accusative on "child", still agreement on "see") without
substantial change in meaning.


===============================
Marcus Smith
AIM:  Anaakoot
"When you lose a language, it's like
dropping a bomb on a museum."
   -- Kenneth Hale
===============================