Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase (Feature 4)
From Apics
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Feature Annotation
A unit is treated here as an adposition if it is a separate free word and combines with a noun phrase and indicates the grammatical or semantic relationship of that noun phrase to the verb in the clause. The two primary types of adpositions are prepositions and postpositions: prepositions precede the noun phrase they occur with, while postpositions follow the noun phrase they occur with.
Some languages also employ adpositions to indicate a relationship of a noun phrase to a noun (especially in an attributive possessive relationship; however, if the only candidates in a language for adpositions are in the possessive construction, they are not treated as adpositions here).
In some languages, some or all of the functions of adpositions are carried by case affixes on nouns. Note that such case affixes are not treated as adpositions here. On the other hand, many languages have relation markers which are not separate words phonologically but whose position is still determined syntactically: these are the clitic relation markers, which attach phonologically to the first or last word in the noun phrase (i.e. not necessarily to the noun in the noun phrase, cf. Kunuz Nubian [esey kursel]=lo ’[village old]=in’). Such clitics are treated here as instances of adpositions.
If you choose value 4 (“No adpositions“), none of the other values may be chosen.
Additional remarks
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Values
| Value | Value Annotation | |
| 1 | Postpositions | Lezgian Duxtur-r-in patariw fe-na. [doctor-pl-gen to go-pst] ‘She went to doctors.’ |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Prepositions | Belizian Creole Wi me de wok fu Shell. [1plantprog work for Shell] ’We were working for Shell.’ |
| 3 | Inpositions | Inpositions occur inside the noun phrase (not inside the word) that they accompany, e.g. Tümpisa Shoshone [ohipim ma natii’iwantü-nna] tiyaitaiha satü [cold.obj from mean-obj] died he ‘He died from a mean cold.’ |
| 4 | No adpositions exist | |
| 5 | Other | (Please give details in the “General comments” field.) |
WALS No.
85 (Total)
