Re: Questions and Impressions of Basque

On Mon, 30 Aug 2004 15:26:16 +0200, Andreas Johansson <andjo@...> wrote:

>Quoting "J. 'Mach' Wust" <j_mach_wust@...>:
>
>> I don't know if there are languages where the definitness is rather
>> explained by an affix on words than by a clitic.
>
>Swedish does. Definiteness is normally indicated by a suffix on the noun;
>if one or more preceeding adjectives are present, you _additionally_ get a
>preceeding article à la in English or German.
>
>(Nominalized adjs just get the preceeding article.)
That's interesting: a syntactic difference between adjectives and nouns!
Reminds me of German where adjectives have another ending depending on the
article, or of Alemannic where the feminine definit article is different
for nouns and for adjectives.

das schöne Kind - ein schönes Kind - ein Schönes
the beautiful child - a beautiful child - a beautiful one (neutr.)

d Frou - di schöni Frou - di Schöni
the woman - the beautiful woman - the beautiful one (fem.)

>Pretty conclusive evidence that we're talking an affix rather than a
>clitic is offered by the fact that it goes between the noun and any
>following modifiers; _toppen av berget_ "the peak of the mountain",
>lit "peak-DEF of mountain-DEF.
For sure, it's the same in English or German: "DEF-peak of DEF-mountain",
that is: "the peak of the mountain". Therefore, I'm wrong and the article
isn't a clitic, right?

g_0ry@s:
j. 'mach' wust

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