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The Unity of Nominal Linking Devices Proc. Natl. Sci, Counc. ROC(C) Vol. 10, No. 1, 2000. pp. 142-155 The Unity of Nominal Linking Devices JOHN TRUSCOTT Department of Foreign Languages and Literature National Tsing Hua University Hsin-Chu, Taiwan (Received March 6, 1999; Accepted October 13, 1999) ABSTRACT The paper examines four general types of nominal linking devices: gender agreement, such as that commonly found in European languages; the noun class phenomenon, typical of African and Aus- tralian languages; classifiers, such as those of East and Southeast Asian languages; and semantically null linking particles, found throughout the world's languages. I argue that these seemingly disparate devices are all expressions of one common underlying entity (Link). The superficial differences among gender, noun classes, and classifiers are due to the different language types in which they appear. Link- ing particles simply represent one natural instantiation of Link, that in which the number of nominal classes is at its logical minimum of one. Key Words: linking; classifiers; linking particles; gender; noun classes; universals not interesting; it means, rather, that they should be I. Introduction studied as more or less predictable variations on a uni- versal theme. Devices used for linking nouns to their modifiers Section 2 provides a brief survey of the four are ubiquitous in the languages of the world. They major forms of nominal linking: linking particles come in a variety of forms, differing from one another (LPs), classifiers (Cls), gender markers (GMs), and in seemingly fundamental ways. On the standard view, noun class markers (NCMs). I will not deal with two this appearance of diversity is genuine--the forms rep- phenomena that are commonly grouped with these resent several distinct phenomena. Explicit distinctions four (Aikhenvald, 1994; Craig, 1992, 1994): class among them are sometimes made and defended (at markers found on verbs, because I wish to limit the least for some of the phenomena). More often, though, discussion to nominal linking; and noun classifiers, this view is simply taken for granted. because they do not depend on the presence of modi- I wish to present an alternative view of nominal fiers and therefore do not represent a linking phenome- linking phenomena, to show that there is an underlying non. In the following three sections I argue that the unity which had not been previously recognized. More diversity among the four forms is only superficial. specifically, I will argue that all the major forms of Section 3 makes the case for the unity of GMs and nominal linking are realizations of a single underlying NCMs. Section 4 then shows that a similar case can be element, which I will call Link. Its varying surface made for the unity of this GM/NCM entity with Cls. forms are largely the product of the differing contexts Finally, in Section 5, I argue that LPs are simply one in which it appears, not of any inherent distinctions. form of GM/NCM/Cl--that form which has no classi- This does not mean that the superficial contrasts are fying function. 142 The Unity of Nominal Linking Devices (1) The English possessive marker 's also has these II. Linking Across Languages characteristics. Despite its standard name, it does not specifically mark possession, in any semantic sense. It 1. Linking Particles is associated, rather, with a number of relations, one of which is ownership. (This fact was first observed, to The prototypical linking relation is found in Aus- my knowledge, by Fries (1938), and has since been tronesian languages, in which a semantically null par- noted by many others.) Consider, for example, the ticle often appears between the noun and its modifiers, phrase Mary's movie. Mary could be the owner of the as in the following examples from Tagalog, Palauan, movie, as in the person who holds legal rights over it and Indonesian. or the owner of the studio that makes it, or the person (1) a. tabmaputik na sahig who owns a copy of the video, or rented or borrowed muddy LP floor one. She could also be the star, or a lesser actor. She b. kikiongel el delmera could be one of the people responsible for creating the dirty LP room movie: producer, writer, director, or even camera oper- c. anjing yang putih ator or any of a host of others. She could be the subject dog LP white of the movie--the person it was written about--or Linking particles appear in a number of locations, someone who likes to watch the movie, or even some- varying somewhat across languages. Tagalog illus- one who simply referred to it recently. In this phrase, 's trates their most general use, with the link connecting can express essentially any relationship that can be nouns to adjectives, demonstratives, possessive pro- imagined between Mary and the movie. Its function is nouns, numerals, quantifiers, interrogative pronouns, simply to indicate that there is a relation. and relative clauses. In general, one LP accompanies The limitations of "ownership" are especially each modifier in Tagalog, regardless of the number or apparent in such cases as my mother/boss/country, or type of modifiers which appear, as illustrated by (2). Jill Dando's murderer, meaning the person who mur- (2) ang aki-ng tatlo-ng maliliit na anak dered Jill Dando. The notion of possession, if it is to my-LP three-LP small LP child accommodate all these meanings, must be stretched "my three small children" beyond all recognition. Thus -s has no semantic con- The Tagalog LP is -ng when the preceding word ends tent. The term "possessive" is an old misnomer that in -n or a vowel and is na otherwise. remains in use only as a matter of tradition. The mark- Such structures are found quite generally among er's function is simply to link prenominal NPs to the Philippine languages and in many Austronesian lan- N, making its status as an LP clear. guages outside the Philippines, such as Palauan and A final example of a linking particle occurs in Chamorro. An LP accompanies each of the noun's Chinese, as shown in the following example: modifiers in these languages, although Chamorro is (4) hen hao-de ren slightly different from the others in that it lacks an LP very good-LP person in possessive constructions. In contrast, LP uses in the The semantically null particle de serves to connect the Formosan language Atayal include possessive head noun to its modifiers, and therefore qualifies as a constructions but exclude some of those found in linking particle.(2) Tagalog, Palauan, and Chamorro. In some other Aus- tronesian languages, such as Indonesian, the use of 2. Classifiers LPs is relatively limited. Elements quite similar to the Austronesian LP Chinese also illustrates the second major type of occur in some Indo-European languages. An example nominal linking--the use of classifiers, shown in the is the Ezafe construction of Persian and some related following examples: languages, illustrated in (3) (Elwell-Sutton, 1941). (5) a. nei-tiao lu (3) dokhtar-e-bozorg-e-ahmad that-Cl road daughter big Ahmad b. san-zhang zhuozi "Ahmad's eldest daughter" three-Cl table The particle -e- has the two characteristics I take as c. ji-ge ren definitional for LPs: It functions as a link between the several-Cl people noun and its modifiers, and it has no semantic content. The Cls tiao, zhang, and ge obligatorily appear in the 143 J. Truscott positions shown above--between nouns and demon- illustrates the phenomenon. stratives,(3) numerals, and certain quantifiers. Recall (6) ki-kapu ki-kubwa ki-moja that these are three of the positions filled by LPs in basket large one Tagalog and Palauan. Like LPs, they serve to link "one large basket" modifier and noun. The difference is that the Cls agree The NCM ki- appears on the head noun and, more with their noun. That which appears with lu (and with importantly, on each of its modifiers. This affix clearly other nouns that refer, inter alia, to long, thin things) serves the function of linking the noun to its modifiers, must be tiao, while that which accompanies zhuozi and is therefore comparable to LPs and Cls. (and other nouns which refer to flat objects) must be Australian languages contain noun class systems zhang. Thus, switching the Cls in (5) produces strikingly similar to those of Bantu. Each noun ungrammaticality in each case. Chinese has a large belongs to one of several classes, loosely based on number of Cls, each associated with a particular class semantic criteria. Which class a noun belongs to is of nouns. These classes generally have a semantic indicated by an affix that appears on each of its modi- basis, though there is no rigid adherence to any seman- fiers, as shown in the following example from Forrest tic principles. River: The use of Cls is common in the languages of (7) amba a-njinga a-newur East and Southeast Asia; examples are Chinese, kangaroo(s) this/these big Burmese, Thai, and Khmer. It is also common in Aus- "this/these big kangaroo(s)" tronesian, especially among Oceanic languages. The prefix a-, appearing on the determiner and the Chamorro, for instance, uses Cls (exclusively) with adjective, is the class marker. The linking here does possessives, while Mokilese, Ponapean, Trukese, and not differ in any interesting respect from that found in Woleaian use them with numerals, as in the Chinese Bantu. NCMs are also found in the North-East and example (5b), and also with possessives. Indonesian North-Central Caucasian families. has only numeral classifiers. Several Mesoamerican families also contain Cl- 4. Gender Markers languages.(4) These include the Mayan languages (Chontal, Yucatec, and Tzeltal, for instance), as well as Interestingly, noun class systems are often called Tarascan and the Totonac languages of the Totonac- gender systems.
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