Re: Greenberg's Universals applied to Lyanjen

Matt McLauchlin wrote, inter alia:

>>22. If in comparisons of superiority the only order or one of the
>>alternative
>>orders is standard-marker-adjective, then the language is postpositional.
>>With
>>overwhelmingly more than chance frequency, if the only order is
>>adjective-marker-standard, the language is prepositional.
>I don't understand...
        The _prepositional order_ as in English: blacker than ink, or
Indonesian lebih hitam daripada tinta.  Postpositional would be : *ink than
blacker.  I guess.  Kash of course is prepositional.

>>23. If in apposition the proper noun usually precedes the common noun,
then
>>the
>>language is one in which the governing noun precedes its dependent
>>genitive.
>>With much more than chance frequency, if the common noun usually precedes
>>the
>>proper noun, the dependent genitive precedes its governing noun.
>
>Uh, either is possible:
Likewise in English-- Elizabeth, the queen, or, the queen, Elizabeth.
Likewise in Kash.  Seems rather trivial to me.

>>26. If a language has discontinuous affixes, it always either prefixing or
>>suffixing or both.
>
>What's a discontinuous affix?
        Others have answered; here's a real-world example:  Indonesian
ke---an, per--an, peng--an, nominalizers.  hilang 'lost' : kehilangan 'loss'
(but also 'to suffer a loss'-- probably a Javanism); kubur 'grave' (mengubur
'to bury') : pe(r)kuburan 'cemetery' : penguburan 'burial'.  The rule of
thumb is: ke-an = abstracts, pe(r)--an = place of..., peng--an = act of...;
but there are idiosyncracies.
These are also _derivations_, to answer your next question.


One could view French ne...pas as a discontinuous affix.