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târuven vs. Greenberg

From:taliesin the storyteller <taliesin@...>
Date:Saturday, September 16, 2000, 19:40
Points not covered either don't apply or there's no(t enough) data.

* Marcus Smith <smithma@...> [000914 06:53]:
> 1. In declarative sentences with nominal subject and object, the > dominant order is almost always one in which the subject precedes the > object.
Wouldn't know, word order is free and I have no statistics on what is most used.
> 2. In languages with prepositions, the genitive almost always follows > the governing noun, while in languages with postpositions it almost > always precedes.
No appositions, genitive might both follow and precede governing noun.
> 5. If a language had dominant SOV order and the genitive follows the > governing noun, then the adjective likewise follows the noun.
Adjective following head noun is marked, preceding is unmarked.
> 9. With well more than chance frequency, when question particles or > affixes are specified in position by reference to the sentence as a > whole, if initial, such elements are found in prepositional languages > and, if final, in postpositional.
Question-words are up front, always.
> 11. Inversion of statement order so that verb precedes subject occurs > only in languages where the question word or phrase is normally > initial. This same inversion occurs in yes-no questions only if it > also occurs in interrogative word questions.
No inversion.
> 19. When the general rule is that the descriptive adjective follows, > there may be a minority of adjectives which usually precede, but when > the general rule is that descriptive adjective precede, there are no > exceptions.
No general rule. Small closed set of suffixed adjectives + large open set of statives (adjectives, stative verbs, non-sentential adverbs).
> 27. If a language is exclusively suffixing, it is postpositional; if > it is exclusively prefixing, it is prepositional.
Hmm, mostly suffixing...
> 28. If both the derivation and inflection follow the root, or they > both precede the root, the derivation is always between the root and > the inflection.
Yep
> 29. If a language has inflection, it always has derivation.
Yep
> 30. If the verb has categories of person-number or if it has > categories of gender, it always has tense-mode categories.
Has TAM but not gender, person or number...
> 34. No language has a trial number unless is has a dual. No language > has a dual unless it has a plural.
Singular, dual, quintal/paucal and plural. A "yep" I guess.
> 35. There is no language in which the plural does not have some > nonzero allomorphs, whereas there are languages in which the singular > is expressed only by zero. The dual and the trial are almost never > expressed by zero.
Yikes how many negations... singular is default, the rest always marked somehow. A yep.
> 38. Where there is a case system, the only case which ever has only > zero allomorphs is the one which includes among its meanings that of > the subject of the intrasitive verbs.
Yep.
> 39. Where morphemes of both number and case are present and both > follow or both precede the noun base, the expression of number almost > always comes between the noun base and the expression of case.
Nope, number -always- last. (Zero-number is a special case, and a prefix to boot.)
> 40. When the adjective follows the noun, the adjective expresses all > the inflectional categories of the noun. In such cases the noun may > lack overt expression of one or all of these categories.
Nope, only case is expressed. Number only on words acting as head noun.
> 41. If in a language the verb follows both the nominal subject and > nominal object as the dominant order, the language almost always has a > case system.
Has a case system but the verb needen't follow.
> 42. All languages have pronominal categories involving at least three > persons and two numbers.
Yep. t.