Re: THEORY: Subject: THEORY: Word Order In Phrases

Thanks for the info and comments, and welcome back!
You were offline for a while weren't you?

Jeff

On Mon, 30 Sep 2002 13:39:59 +0200, takatunu <takatunu@...> wrote:

>Jeff Jones <jeffsjones@...> wrote:
>
>>>>>
>I have a question about word order in Natlangs. How common is the order
>Noun  Adjectives  Quantifier  Determiner
>where Quantifier includes exact and approximate numbers and fractions as
>well as logical quantifiers, and Determiner includes things like definite
>articles?
><<<<
>
>i don't know whether it's very common but indonesian works like that:
>
>mobil dua biji (yang) ini (or: dua biji mobil ini)
>car two seed (which) this
>these two cars
>
>orang (yang) banyak itu
>man (who) many that
>those many people
>
>however, indonesian may also put quantifiers before the noun:
>
>dua orang tukang yang miskin itu
>two man craftsman who poor that
>those two poor craftsmen
>
>seekor sapi yang merah ini
>one-tail ox which red this
>this red ox
>
>setiap kali
>each time
>
>semua kera
>all the monkeys
>
>etc.
>
>other langs like khmer do the same as well. i think french creole does so
too.
>
>>>>>>
>It seems odd to me, but is what I came up with in avoiding ambiguity (in
>relation to other aspects of a syntax I'm working on). I notice that it's
>the reverse order of English (e.g. "the 3 hungry wolves").
>I have another question: is there any theoretical reason why or why not
>(depending on the answer to the first question).
>
><<<<<
>i agree with you that this order does a good job in "avoiding ambiguity".
>my conlang works like that too because it's very natural to me.
>as french say: "tous les gouts sont dans la nature" :-)
>
>Mathias
>