A Reference Grammar of Kotiria (Wanano)

6. Noun phrases

6 Noun phrases This chapter describes the internal syntax of noun phrases (NPs) in Kotiria. Noun phrase structure follows a basic template in which most types of modifiers generally precede the head noun (§6.1). The basic types of modifiers include determiner and quantifying expressions (§§6.2–6.3), possessive and interrogative modification (§§6.4–6.5), and adjective-like descriptive nominalizations (§6.6); the ordering and use of multiple modifiers within NPs is discussed in §6.7. The lexical noun classification morphology described in chapter 4 occurs on most types of modifiers (determiners, number quantifiers, interrogatives, and descriptives ), establishing a kind of semantic agreement between the head noun and the modifier. Several features of Kotiria NPs contrast with those found in other Eastern Tukanoan languages and are presumably innovative. One such feature is the deployment of plural marking in number modification: in Kotiria, both number modifier roots and head nouns show patterns of pluralization that differ depending on noun class. Innovations also have taken place in the expression of possession: Kotiria has developed a system of personal possessive proclitics (reduced forms of personal pronouns) that form a single phonological unit with the possessed noun; moreover, the possessive morpheme ya, analyzed as a genitive prefix or suffix in much of the literature on Eastern Tukanoan, displays all the properties of a root morpheme in Kotiria. 6.1 Constituent order in noun phrases Like other Eastern Tukanoan languages (see §10.4.3), Kotiria has basic object-verb clausal word order and displays the typologically correlated internal NP structure in which modifiers precede head nouns (Givón 2001, vol. 1:242). This basic structure occurs in most modifying constructions, with the exception of those involving the quantifier pe’ri and descriptives. The basic categories of modifiers found in noun phrases include different types of determiners (1)–(3), quantifiers (4)–(5), possessives (6), interrogatives (7), and descriptives (8). 174 Chapter 6 (1) deictic a’ri khiti a’rí khití DEM.PROX story ‘this story’ (2) anaphoric tiphƭ yҁ’soriphƭ tí-~phí yҁ’só+ri-~phi ANPH-CLS:bladelike cut+NOM-CLS:bladelike ‘this knife’ (3) alternate pairo ka yahiripho’na pá-iro ká yahíri~pho’da ALT-NOM.SG monkey heart ‘another monkey heart’ (4) number kҁ˾iro mҁno ~kҁ̗ -író ~bҁ̗ +ro one-NOM.SG man+SG ‘one man’ (5) quantity phayҁ wãhtia phayҁ̗ ~watí+á many devil+PL ‘many devils’ (6) possessive to dieya to=dié-yá 3SG.POSS=dog-PL ‘his dogs’ (7) interrogative do’se a’riro mahsҁro do’sé a’rí+ró ~basҁ̗ +ro WH DEM.PROX+SG being+SG ‘what kind of being?’ Noun phrases 175 (8) descriptive (adjectival) nominalization bҁhҁina dainakã ba’aa bҁhҁ̗ -~ida dá-~ídá-~ká ba’á+á be.large-NOM.PL be.small-NOM.PL-DIM bass+PL ‘large and small bass’ The examples above indicate that some kinds of modifiers (specifically demonstratives, quantifiers, the “alternate,” interrogatives, and descriptives) can take classifying morphology corresponding to the overtly marked or understood features of the head noun; how this works is one of the things that is presented in more detail in the following sections. 6.2 Determiners The deictic particles a’ri, si, ~o, ~so’o, and to, the anaphoric particle ti, and the alternate particle pa can all be used either as pronominals (independent NPs) or as modifiers within an NP (see §3.2, §4.5.2, and§4.7); I label them determiners when they are used as modifiers. Determiners precede head nouns and form separate phonological words. They occur with obligatory nominal morphology showing agreement with the nouns they modify. The most frequently occurring determiners are the demonstrative a’ri ‘this’, the anaphorics ti and to ‘that, there, the’, and the alternate pa ‘other, another’. Their primary function is to introduce new participants or, in the case of the anaphorics, to link reference to a previously mentioned participant. The inherent classificatory features of the head noun (whether overtly coded or merely implicit) are morphologically marked on the determiner when the noun is first introduced. In subsequent mentions of the entity, the head noun does not need to appear; a deictic, anaphoric , or alternate particle with the same classifying morphology, which is obligatory, can be used as a pronoun referring to it.1 In the discourse in (9), for example, the inherent feminine, singular, and animate features of the referent of the proper noun ‘Kristine...