Pernilla Hallonsten Halling

ma-liít
st-smallness
na hayop
lk animal
attr

‘the small animal’

2. 
   napakagandáng
   

ela.beauty.lk

dalaga
young.woman


iyón
dist


e
emph

attr

‘She (that one) is a very beautiful girl, you see.’

The order of the items in a construction with a linker is not fixed: e.g. ‘smallness’ and ‘animal’ in (7.28a) could switch places. If there is more than one modifying item, then the linker occurs with each one of them, as seen in the example with a numeral in (7.29).

(7.29) Tagalog (Austronesian) (Himmelmann 2005: 359) [attr adv]

ang
spec
apat

four

na ma-lalim

lk st-depth

na balón
lk well
attr

‘four deep wells’


The linker is also used in relative clauses, which may precede or follow the head, as illustrated in example (7.30), where there is both a preceding and a following relative clause, as indicated with brackets.
(7.30) Tagalog (Austronesian) (Himmelmann 2005: 359) ¹⁰

[kanyá-ng
3sg.dat-lk
na-kita-ng]
real.pot-seen-lk
isá-ng
one-lk
ibon
bird
[na
lk
mayroóng
exist.lk
pugad] nest

‘(There was) a bird he happened to see that had a nest.’ In adv, the linker is used, as in the examples in (7.31).
(7.31) Tagalog (Austronesian) (Himmelmann 2005: 359, 360) [attr adv]

1. 
   biglá-ng
   

sudden-lk

datíng
arrival
yung
dist.lk
utusan
servant
adv

‘Suddenly that servant came. . . ’

2. 
   biglá
   

sudden

siyá-ng
3sg-lk
nagbangon
real.av.rising
adv

‘. . . she got quickly up (from her bed), . . . ’

Although dumatíng ‘arrival’ in (7.31a) may seem noun-like in the gloss, it has a prefix indicating actor voice, and should perhaps instead be glossed as ‘arrive’. In (7.31b), the clitic indicating third person singular is attached to the linker. In addition to the constructions decribed so far, the linker occurs on modifiers that function as intensifiers.

⁹ In (7.28), st stands for ‘stative’ and ela for ‘elative’, cf. list of abbreviations.

¹⁰ Brackets are added and two lines merged from the original.

(7.32) Tagalog (Austronesian) (Himmelmann 2005: 359)

lalo-ng

surpassing-lk

malakí
big
ang
spec
takot
fear

‘The fear was very great . . . ’

An example of pred is provided in (7.33).

(7.33) Tagalog (Austronesian) (Schachter 1972: 64)

pred

Bago

new

ang
top
bahay
house

‘The house is new.’

While the same encoding strategy in the form of the linker na/-ng is attested in attr and adv, the pred function does not have this encoding strategy. This difference is obvious in the constructional-typological summary in (7.34). Here, the label PROP is used for ‘property’ for illustrative purposes, even though this does not follow the constructional- typological notation used here, in order to indicate that any property-denoting lexeme can be used here.

(7.34) attr, pred, and adv in Tagalog

attr

Function: property modification within referring expression
Form: (ang _spec/top) PROP na/-ng _lk N Example: (7.28), (7.29)

preD

Function: property predication Form: PROP ang _spec/top S Example: (7.33)

aDv

Function: property modification within predicating expression
Form: PROP na/-ng _lk V Example: (7.31)
It is remarkable that a language in which it does not make sense to distinguish any categories, and that thus clearly does not have any classes of adjectives, adverbs, or even general modifiers, still has the same encoding pattern for the two functions involving modification, i.e. attr and adv. The linker used for modification in attr and adv also occurs in relative clauses and with intensifiers. A relative clause is also an instance of modification in attr, as noted by Croft (2001: 88) in the region of action modification (i.e. modification through the use of an action word) in his conceptual space (cf. table 2.2 in section 2.3.4). Intensifiers are also a type of modifier, either of other modifiers, or of predicates (as appears to be the case in example 7.32). Thus, Tagalog shows that it is not

necessary to have an overlap on the level of the lexeme restricted to the three functions in question. Rather, the construction as such is a modification construction, and it is in this that the overlap is manifested.

A more marginal overlap of attr and adv is attested in Cherokee (Iroquoian). Here, a class of General Modifiers can be identified, with certain resemblance to Verbs, such as taking pronominal prefixes indicating person and number. These prefixes normally occur in attr and pred, but at least one of the General Modifiers can be used in adv, and does not require the prefix in attr and adv.

(7.35) Cherokee (Iroquoian) (Montgomery-Anderson 2008: 548) [attr adv]

1. 
   na
   

the
osda

good

asgaya
^˙man^˙
oginaliPi.
fri^˙end
attr

‘The good man is my friend.’

2. 
   osda
   

good

gawonisgoPi.
sp^˙ eaks
adv

‘He speaks well.’
In pred, the pronominal prefix is required, as illustrated in (7.36). (7.36) Cherokee (Iroquoian) (Montgomery-Anderson 2008: 497)

1. 
   a-óósta
   

3-good
‘good, he/she is good’

2. 
   anii-óósta
   

3pl-good
‘good, they are good’


pred

Due to a lack of data, it is unclear whether it is a subset of General Modifiers that can be used in this fashion, or whether the example in (7.35) is a single exception. A similar pattern is found in Hdi (Afro-Asiatic), where certain General Modifiers, denoting color and with a clear nominal origin, combine with the preposition kà ‘like’ (Frajzyngier & Shay 2002: 74, 349) in all three functions. In pred, a copula must also be used.

(7.37) Hdi (Afro-Asiatic) (Frajzyngier & Shay 2002: 75, 349) [attr adv]

1. 
   nda´
   

assoc
ńgh-íyù
see-1sg
ta´
obj
vdzí
monkey