Re: a grammar sketch...

On Sat, 30 Sep 2000, The Gray Wizard wrote:

> Actually, I believe it is a more general term than this.  Head marking
> includes any form of marking the relation between a head and a dependent
> where the head is morphologically marked rather than the dependent.  The
> head of a phrase is that element that determines the syntactic function of
> the phrase. A noun is the head of a NP, a verb is the head of a VP, etc.
> Head marking thus includes things like marking the possessed head rather
> than the dependent possessor in a possessive construction.  Your example of
> marking grammatical relations on the verb (head) rather than case marking on
> the noun (dependent) is another example of head marking.
<dancing around in glee>  There's a word for it!  How common is this
among natlangs and what natlangs make use of it?

> AFMCL, amman iar has an interesting mix of ergative dependent case marking
> and active head marking. Thus,
>
> \f Galdor slew the dragon.
> \t i galdranne eleth an i feng ernurgoiraen
> \n galdar ir feng orgorte
[snip]

I remember coming across this one on the website and being somewhat
puzzled as to what was going on.  It makes much better sense now.  Thank
you for the example.  :-)

Cheers,
YHL