Noun Phrase Constructions in Nubian Languages: A Comparative Study
Noun Phrase Constructions in Nubian Languages: A Comparative Study
复制标题
努比亚语言中的名词短语结构:比较研究
DOI:
10.5070/d61110013
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发表时间:
2014
期刊:
影响因子:
--
通讯作者:
Suzan Alamin
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
Suzan Alamin
Most of historical-comparative studies of Nubian languages deal with sound correspondences and lexical similarities in order to reconstruct the Proto-Nubian sound system and lexicon, Proto-Nubian being the assumed ancestor of the Nubian languages.1 The present paper attempts to reconstruct the Proto-Nubian noun phrase. According to Payne, “noun phrases are traditionally thought of as consisting minimally of a head noun, together with any number of noun phrase modifiers”2 such as an adjective, numeral, quantifier, determiner, possessive adjective, genitive, and/or a relative clause. (Note that relative clauses are not included in this study). This study investigates noun phrases in the Nubian languages, that is, to find out which elements may modify noun phrases and how these modifiers are distributed within a noun phrase (hereafter np). Also number agreement between the noun and its modifiers is considered. The ultimate aim is to infer from the comparison of np constituent order in the various modern Nubian languages what the constituent order of the Proto-Nubian np looks like. The paper is structured as follows: Section 2 gives a short background of the Nubian language classification, data sources, the aim of the study, and the method of data analysis. In addition, some typological features of modern Nubian languages are presented. Section 3 describes the internal structure of nps including nps represented by a personal pronoun, determiner, or quantifier, and nps