duy ‘two’. This can be
established by employing the simple deletion principles, i.e. in any
endocentric construction, the construction would not be effected, if
any or all the satellites are deleted. If this is applied to NP given
earlier, the following phrases can be had:
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otu lora
‘that boy’
duy lora ‘two boys’
etom bal lora ‘very good boy’
otu duy lora ‘those two boys’
otu bal lora ‘that good boy’
duy bal lora ‘two good boys’
*etom lora
*otu etom dyu lora
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The NPs listed above clearly
indicate that etom is not a satellite of the nucleus ‘boy’ but only of
the adjective bal ‘good’, whereas the other adjectives are not the
satellites of the adjective bal, rather they are directly linked with
the noun lora ‘boy’.
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An adjective phrase may now
be defined as that phrase which consists of at least one adjective with
or without an intensifier functioning as the satellite of the nucleus
of an adjective phrase.
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3.5.2.
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Noun Phrase |
A noun phrase is
that element in a sentence which typically functions as the subject,
object and complement in postpositional phrases1,
as in :
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Soniya jayse
‘Sonia went’
am soniyak dikhise ‘Shyama
saw Sonia’
ama Soniyal got jayse
‘Shyama went with Sonia’
ama tat gorot jayse ‘Shyama went to
that house’, etc.
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A noun phrase
may have a single noun as its sole realization, as in:
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Kukur dwra
‘the dog ran’
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In addition to
the noun, a noun phrase may have one or more adjectives including
functional adjectives and in such instances, the noun concerned would
be the nucleus and the adjectives including the functional adjectives
would be the satellites of the noun nucleus, as in:
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bisi bal suali
‘many good girls’
moy puali
‘my daughter’
moy dwra puali
‘my running daughter’
(my daughter who is running)
moy duy dwra puali
‘two daughters of mine who are running’
otu bisi bal suali
‘those many good girls’, etc.
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1When
NPs occur in postpostional phrase, such NPs would functionally be
adverbs and would hereafter be treated accordingly.
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Usually, the
adjective is proposed to the noun nucleus. If, however, a noun phrase
has a numeral or a quantitative adjective as a satellite it can be
postposed to the noun nucleus. If the noun phrase has also a
qualitative adjective, the same would continue to be preposed to the
noun nucleus, as in :
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suali bisi
‘my girls’
suali duy ‘two
girls’
bal suali bisi or ‘many good girls’, etc.
bisi bal sauli
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(ii) In
addition, a noun derived from a verb could also be postposed to the
noun nucleus subject to the condition that the noun concerned is (a) a
member of the noun non-human being class or (b) refers to small
children. In all other instances, adjectives derived from the verbs
would be preposed to the noun nucleus as in :
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lora khela/khela
lora ‘the playing child’
giriaha am/am giri aha ‘the falling mango’
(lit mango fall come)
khela suali
‘the playing girl’, etc.
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(ii) A
noun/pronoun having the genitive case relation with another noun would
invariably be preposed to the nucleus, as in :
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tay matha
‘her head’
ama kitab ‘Shyama’s book’
ama baba ‘Shyama father’, etc.
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A particle could
also form a constituent of a noun phrase, but they are invariably
postposed to the noun nucleus, as in :
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sualibi
‘the girl also’
sualitu ‘the particular girl’, etc.
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When a noun
phrase has both the conjunctive and the definite particle, the
definite particle is preposed to the conjunctive, as in :
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sualitubi
‘the girl also’
|
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It was mentioned earlier that an adjective/numeral may be postposed
to the noun nucleus, but this is not permissible, if a particle forms
part of a noun phrase, as in :
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bisi sualibi
‘the many good girls also’
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The illustrative
examples of the NPs given above had a noun nucleus with one or more
satellites. One could also have NPs with two or more nouns as its
constituents but none of which being the nucleus to the other nouns,
rather all the nouns would jointly form the nucleus. Such
constructions could be sub-grouped primarily into three, viz., (a)
appostive (b) coordinate and (c) alternative constructions. These
three types of constructions are discussed below with illustrative
examples.
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