Attributive modification in South American indigenous languages

Linguistics, vol. 60, pp. 745–807

Abstract

Abstract The article deals with attributive modification in South American languages. It focuses on descriptive terms that denote properties. First of all, it is observed that attributive modification with property terms is possible in most, but not all South American languages. The typology of attributive constructions is argued to constitute a continuum, from syntactically loose nominal expressions, on the one hand, to morphologically complex structures which are ambiguous between compounding and derivation, on the other hand. The latter involves the use of lexico-grammatical means such as classifiers. The paper also raises the question of a possible diachronic link – at least for some languages – between intransitive clauses and postnominal property terms, which are often verbal in nature.

Authors 1

1. Olga Krasnoukhova corresponding Aachen Centre for Linguistics, Leiden University

   Leiden University · University of Antwerp

   Affiliation as printed

   Centre for Linguistics, Leiden University , Leiden , The Netherlands

   University of Antwerp , Antwerpen , Belgium