Das grammatische Raritätenkabinett
A catalogue of rare and unusual grammatical phenomena documented across the world’s languages. 147 published entries.
67 entries · page 2 of 2
| # | Phenomenon | Found in | Domain | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 110 | verb-final and postpositions, but bound morphology (almost) exclusively prefixal | Athabaskan lgs [a family possession?] | morphology, syntax / types of exponents and their uses | affix order, word order |
| 111 | infix positioned after the last consonant of the onset of the stem, i.e., after the first consonant if there is only one or after a consonant cluster if there are more |
Tagalog (Philippine Austronesian), Atayal (Formosan Austronesian) | phonology, morphology / types of exponents and their uses | infix |
| 112 | infix positioned after the vowel of the penultimate syllable of the stem | Alabama (Muskogean) | phonology, morphology / types of exponents and their uses | infix |
| 113 | infix positioned after the second syllable of the stem | Dakota (Siouan) (?) | phonology, morphology / types of exponents and their uses | infix |
| 114 | stem suppletion of the verb 'say' determined by the person of the addressee | some Oto-Manguean lgs | morphology: inflection / suppletion | verb, indirect object |
| 115 | stem suppletion of 'two', as the only numeral, depending on the use of the numeral for counting or for quantifying a noun | Maltese (Semitic, Afroasiatic); Chinese (Sinitic, Sino-Tibetan) | morphology: inflection / suppletion | numeral |
| 116 | different definite article depending on whether an accompanying adjective denotes colour or another kind of property concept | Belhare (Kiranti, Tibeto-Burman) | morphology: inflection / cumulation, sensitivity | definite article, adjective, property concepts, colour |
| 117 | sets of local cases regularly distinguishing whether locatum is above, below, or on same level as deictic reference point | Bantawa, Belhare, Rai (Kiranti, Tibeto-Burman) | morphology: inflection / complexity | case, local cases, deixis |
| 118 | neither tense nor aspect grammaticalized at all | Maybrat, Hatam, perhaps further languages of the Bird's Head area, New Guinea (non-Austronesian) | morphology: inflection / categories and their domains: tense-aspect | tense, aspect, grammaticalization |
| 119 | "conjunct vs. disjunct" system of (bound) person marking, with the conjunct form referring to the speaker in statements and the addressee in questions, and the disjunct form referring to everything else (addressee in statements, speaker in questions (where this makes sense), non-SAP in statements and questions) | Awa Pit, Tsafiki (Barbacoan); Newar, Lhasa-Tibetan, Lhomi (Tibeto-Burman) | morphology: inflection / categories and their domains: person, number | personal pronouns, person |
| 133 | 'eight' as regular base for a numeral system | Pamean lgs, esp. Northern Pame (Otomanguean) | morphology: word formation / numeral systems: bases | numeral |
| 134 | dual forms of personal pronouns (all three persons) as the basic forms from which both singular and plural are formed by suffixation | Muisca (Chibchan) | morphology: inflection / zero | dual, plural, singular, personal pronoun |
| 140 | number distinction (singular/plural) only on 2nd person pronouns, as well as on determiner demonstratives, and not on any other pronouns (including 1st) or nouns | Malagasy (West Indonesian, Austronesian) | morphology: inflection / categories and their domains: person, number | personal pronoun |
| 144 | an asymmetric gender system, with genders distinguished in singular but not in plural, but a few words that do show a gender contrast in the plural, agreeing with nouns depending on their singular gender: the numerals 'two' and perhaps 'three', and the quantifier 'both' | older West Germanic languages (Indo-European) | morphology, syntax / agreement | gender, number, numerals |
| 145 | of all cardinal numerals, only that for 'four' agreeing in gender | Chechen, Ingush, Tsova-Tush (NE Central, or Nakh, Daghestanian) | morphology, syntax / agreement | numeral, gender |
| 146 | different forms of the verb 'to say' depending on the sex of the person whose speaking is reported: bada '[a man] said', mana '[a woman] said' |
Ket (isolate, "Paleosiberian") | morphology, lexicon / agreement | gender, speech reporting |
| 147 | an imperative of distant future, as opposed to an imperative of near future; formed from near-future imperative verb forms plus the ablative singular of the pronoun *to-, -to:d 'from there, afterwards' illustration: tu epistulam hanc a me accipe atque illi dato: (Plautus, Pseudolus) 'take you this letter from me [now] and give it to him [later]!' |
Old Indian (Sanskrit), Ancient Greek, and Latin (a family possession, i.e., jointly innovated in (a subset of) Indo-European, and lost in other members of the family?) | morphology: inflection / mood, tense | imperative, future |