Re: Head vs. Dependent Marking

On Wed, 9 Jun 1999 19:05:48 -0600 Ed Heil <edheil@...> writes:
>Is anyone familiar with the concept of "head-marking" vs.
>"dependent-marking" languages?
>Whereas some other languages (Hebrew?) are "head-marking," which
>means that they
>1. mark the head noun ("construct state") in a noun-genitive
>relationship
>2. mark the verb to indicate what its arguments are (via agreement
>markers?)
>Is this an accurate summary of what's going on?  Can anyone add
>anything to this?
>Ed Heil ------ edheil@postmark.net
>--- http://purl.org/net/edheil ---
I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but this is how Hebrew works:

In a noun-genitive relationship, the two nouns are split up:
(noun of) (noun)
_sifrei hayeled_
"books-of the-child"

instead of:
(noun) (of noun) / (of noun) (noun)
_the child's books_

= "of-the-child books"


I'm not sure at all what you mean by the verb's arguments, but Hebrew
verbs change for tense and person:

shamarti = i guarded
shomrim = we (m) / you (m) / they (m) guarded
tishmorna = you (f) / they (f) will guard

But you can also add forms of object pronouns to the end:

shemartihu = i guarded him
(shamarti + -hu)
torideimo = you / she will bring them down
(torid + -(ei)mo)
lehargeini = to kill me
(laharog + -(ei)ni)


-Stephen (Steg)

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