Practice exercise

We discussed the case system of an imaginary variety of Pidgin English which we called “Pseudo-English.” Now imagine that several other varieties are discovered on neighboring islands, and you are sent to investigate. As part of this study, you collect the following NP examples. For each language, based on the data available, determine whether it has a gender system or a classifier system. Give reasons for your decisions, and state the criteria which you would use for determining the class of each noun. (Hyphens represent affix boundaries.)

Pseudo-English B:

(i) this-i horse           this-u bottle

     this-i hound              this-u box

     this-i hare                 this-u boulder

     this-i husband          this-u budget

     this-i housewife       this-u bicycle

As you collect Swadesh lists and other basic vocabulary samples, you find that 90 per cent of the nouns fit the patterns shown in (i). However, in collecting additional data you find a few forms like those in (ii). (Comparative evidence suggests that many of these forms are loan words.) In what way do these forms complicate your analysis? How many noun classes are there in this language? What labels would you suggest for naming the classes? Which class do each of the words in (ii) belong to, and why?

(ii) this-i behemoth this-u helix

     this-i boy             this-u hippopotamus

Pseudo English C:

(iii) one plark pig                                  this flusp leaf

       that plark rooster                          one flusp mat

       those three plark puppies             those four flusp blankets

       my four plark buffalo

       that siggle rifle                             this chorp house

       those two siggle blossoms           two chorp bicycles

                                                             those three chorp tables

                                                             four chorp nations

                                                             that chorp problem

You manage to find some bilingual speakers of this dialect and ask them to translate these phrases into standard English. The translations are not surprising: ‘one pig,’ ‘this leaf,’ ‘that rifle,’ etc. You ask what plark means, and they tell you it means ‘tail.’ You learn that chorp means ‘fruit.’ You ask about siggle and flusp and are told: “Those words don’t mean anything, but they make the phrases sound better.” How many noun classes are there in this language? Is it a gender system or a classifier system? Why?

اخر الاخبار

اخبار العتبة العباسية المقدسة

سماحة السيد الصافي يكرم عددًا من عوائل الشهداء ضمن فعاليات مهرجان روح النبوة النسوي العالمي الثامن

إحدى أمهات الشهداء: نعتز بتضحيات أبنائنا ونفتخر بشهادتهم دفاعًا عن الدين والمقدسات

ضمن فعاليات مهرجان روح النبوة… عرض فيلم يوثق نشاطات الشعب النسوية في العتبة العباسية المقدسة

فعاليات مهرجان روح النبوة الثقافي تشهد تقديم أوبريت الثقلين القرآني

المزيد

الآخبار الصحية

ماذا يحدث لجسمك عند تناول الوجبات السريعة يوميا؟

لصحة عظام المرأة.. الشاي أفضل أم القهوة؟

لبناء العضلات وإنقاص الوزن.. ما أفضل توقيت لتناول البيض؟

أطعمة صحية تساعد على التعافي من "الإنفلونزا الخارقة"

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

دراسة تكشف قدرة الحيتان على سماع الأصوات منخفضة وعالية التردد من مسافة بعيدة

تجربة جديدة: الأسفلت المدعوم بالطحالب يقاوم الحفر ويقلل الانبعاثات الكربونية

تسريبات تكشف ملامح أول هاتف قابل للطي من "أبل"

رصد نوع نادر من القطط في تايلاند للمرة الأولى منذ عقود

المزيد

مواضيع ذات صلة

Agreement with N

Agreement

Case and agreement

Noun Phrases Conclusion

Noun Phrases

Compound verb phrases

Compound verb phrases

Compound noun phrases

COMPOUND PHRASES

The basic structure of auxiliary phrases

AUXILIARY PHRASES

VERB PHRASES The basic structure of verb phrases