Pernilla Hallonsten Halling

-ly ending, as exemplified in (4.2). But in terms of semantics, fast is a typical property word, and it is therefore particularly interesting that a minor pattern occurs here. More importantly, the fact that a language may have several different ways of encoding the same function, minor as well as major, is expected from a typological point of view and should be accounted for. The overlaps in figures 4.1–4.4 thus illustrate different lexeme and root overlaps within one and the same language. Figure 4.1, which illustrates an overlap of attr and pred, with adv encoded in a different way, is nonetheless the most common pattern on the lexeme level for English.
Although the root and lexeme provide detailed levels of analysis, other languages may require a third level, as illustrated with examples from Swedish (Indo-European) in (4.6).


Swedish has two genders: common and neuter. When the Noun that the property is ascribed to is neuter, Adjectives take the neuter ending -t both in attr and pred. When the Noun has common gender, there is no inflection. Adverbs are formed from Adjectives with an ending that is either the same as or coincides with the neuter -t (whether this is derivation or inflection is left an open question here).

(4.6) Swedish (Indo-European) (constructed ex.) [attr pred adv] word form

1. 
   Lisa
   

Lisa
är
be.prs
en
art.indf.comm
lycklig

sad.comm.sg

person.
person
attr

‘Lisa is a sad person.’

2. 
   Det
   

it
blev
become.pst
ett
art.indf.neut