Gender Agreement of Adnominal Adjectives (Feature 40)
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Feature Annotation
In many gender languages, adnominal adjectives agree with their head noun in gender, as in French un grand clocher ‘a big church steeple’ vs. une grande table ‘a big table’. We do not differentiate between cases where gender agreement is obligatory and where it is optional.
Additional remarks
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Values
| Value | Value Annotation | |
| 1 | No adjective agrees with the noun | E.g. Tok Pisin |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Only few adjectives agree with the noun | In Principense, only the adjective finu/fina ‘refined’ optionally agrees with the noun: omi ũa finu ‘a refined man’ vs. mye ũa fina ‘a refined woman’, whereby mye ũa finu is also fine. In Papiamentu, only some nationality adjectives agree optionally with the noun: un mucha hòmber kolombiano ‘a Colombian boy’ vs. un mucha muhé kolombiana ‘a Colombian girl’, whereby un mucha muhé kolombiano is also fine. |
| 3 | Many adjectives agree with the noun | French un nuage blanc 'a white cloud’ vs. une colombe blanche'a white dove’, but un homme moderne ’a modern man’ vs. une femme moderne 'a modern woman’ |
| 4 | All adjectives agree with the noun | Marginal cases are disregarded: In German, all adjectives agree with the noun, but a few colour adjectives exceptionally do not, as ein rosa Schal (M) ‘a pink shawl’ and eine rosa Bluse (F) ‘a pink blouse’. |
WALS No.
(30) (Partial)
