1367260110.5528Understanding Syntax

136Understanding syntax(ii) Decide whether each construction is head-marking or dependentmarking.(iii) See if you can work out why (4a) and (4b) differ from each other.Hints∑ As an example, here is the answer for (1): this is a possessive construction;the head is the possessed noun halgan ‘leg’, and its dependent is the possessorbeje ‘man’. The head is marked for third person singular possessive, poss,(agreeing with ‘man’), while the dependent has no marking; this is therefore ahead-marking construction.∑ In (7), concentrate only on the portions in brackets. dative (which we havemet before) and ablative are two different cases. Ablative typically refers togoing from some location.(1) beje halgan-in (Evenki)man leg-3sg.poss‘the man’s leg’ (Nedjalkov 1997)(2) dee-n aaxča (Chechen)father-genitive money‘father’s money’ (Nichols 1986)(3) Ye-sa-núhwe’-s (Mohawk)f.sg.Su-2sg.Obj-like-habitual‘She likes you.’ (Deering and Delisle 1976, cited in Baker 1996)(4) a. xiri-con Xijam (Wari )house-3m.sg (male name)‘Xijam’s house’b. pije'-nequem Hatemchild-poss.3f.sg (female name)‘Hatem’s child’ (Everett and Kern 1997)(5) a. le rakles-k-i dej (Romani)the.m boy-gen-f mother‘the boy’s mother’b. le rakles-k-e phralathe.m boy-gen-pl brothers‘the boy’s brothers’ (Matras 2002)(6) az ember ház-a (Hungarian)the man house-3sg‘the man’s house’ (Nichols 1986)(7) a. Hasan [köy-e doğru] yürü-dü. (Turkish)Hasan village-dative towards walk-past‘Hasan walked towards the village.’b. Hasan [Ali-den önce] git-ta.Hasan Ali-ablative before go-past‘Hasan left a little while before Ali.’ (Kornfilt 1997)