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Universal 571:

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 571:

Original
Hierarchy of syntactic bondedness (stronger > weaker): article+noun > deictic+noun < interrogative+noun < quantifier/indefinite+noun < adjective+noun >
> participle+noun > relative clause+noun.

As soon as an adjunct category has an obligatory overt marker of its subordination to the head noun (such as ligature morphemes), all weaker bound categories of adjuncts also require an overt marker.
But bondedness hierarchy is claimed to be valid for other morphosyntactic differences between various kinds of adjuncts as well.

Standardized
Hierarchy of syntactic bondedness (stronger > weaker): article+noun > deictic+noun < interrogative+noun < quantifier/indefinite+noun < adjective+noun >
> participle+noun > relative clause+noun.

As soon as an adjunct category has an obligatory overt marker of its subordination to the head noun (such as ligature morphemes), all weaker bound categories of adjuncts also require an overt marker.
But bondedness hierarchy is claimed to be valid for other morphosyntactic differences between various kinds of adjuncts as well.

Keywords
article, noun, interrogative, deictic, quantifier, indefinite, adjective, participle, relative clause, boundeness, hierarchy, ligative
Domain
syntax
Type
implicational hierarchy
Status
achronic
Quality
absolute
Basis
Austronesian languages
Source
Foley 1980: 174
Counterexamples

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP

    It is not required that every language have each of these as separate grammatical categories, but they will have most of them as semantically differentiable entities.

    1. May 2020

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