All Questions
Tagged with grammar list-of-languages
13 questions
4
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0
answers
118
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Are there languages where grammatical parallelism does not matter?
English has a strong preference for parallelism (Wikipedia link), even though sentences lacking parallelism are still considered grammatically correct:
Good:
She likes cooking, jogging, and reading.
...
- 1,140
-1
votes
1
answer
72
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Question about a specific grammatical feature
In one Conlang I am developing there is a feature where owned items are treated as the subject of a verb, and the owner as the Object.
So, for example:
Car sohi Amelia
Would mean Amelia's Car, with ...
- 197
1
vote
1
answer
228
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Is there such thing as a 'half-plural'?
If yes, does any language have this feature?
By 'half-plural' I mean, somewhere between singular and plural, but not dual, trial, or quadral.
- 465
0
votes
1
answer
1k
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Describing continuity and change (like mou and mada in Japanese)
In Japanese, mada まだ refers to a continuing state: 'still (as it was)' or 'not (changed) yet', and mou もう is about change: 'already (changed)' or 'no longer (the same)'. Are there other languages ...
- 507
0
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0
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90
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Are there languages which have ways to distinguish between an adjunct noun and an adjective?
(Take some example). Do other languages (than English) have means distinguish between their adjunct nouns and adjectives or is it a very complex/grammatical structure that cannot possibly be ...
- 1,272
7
votes
1
answer
1k
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Are there languages where the tense depends on time elapsed between events?
In all the languages I am familiar with (mostly English and my native German as well as some rudimentary Italian and French, so all somewhat related.), the tense of a verb only indicates the time of ...
- 173
7
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0
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170
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Are there any languages where the first person cannot be an object?
In some languages, nouns low on the animacy hierarchy, particularly inanimates cannot surface as A, and if a situation arises where they are underlyingly A, some reparative strategy such as a passive ...
- 316
4
votes
1
answer
331
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Are there any languages that place subjects and direct objects before the verbs, but everything else after?
I know the Romance languages do this with pronouns, but they don't do this with noun phrases.
Are there any natlangs out there where the subject and direct object always precedes the verb, but ...
user19661
9
votes
5
answers
378
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Are there any known natural languages in which tense is never (or very rarely) expressed through the modification of verbs?
I should probably confess up front that I don't have a great deal of knowledge of foreign languages, but I have lately taken a strong interest in the structure and nature of language, and have spent a ...
6
votes
1
answer
319
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Languages with a grammatical distinction between abstract and concrete nouns
Are there any languages making a grammatical distinction between abstract and concrete nouns?
I suppose this should boil down to the question about the existence of languages having a morpheme ...
- 504
2
votes
4
answers
219
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Languages that have morphological distinction between independent clauses with implicit subjects and independent clauses with explicit subjects?
Many languages permit an independent clause to lack an explicit subject (known as null-subject languages). Consider the following sentences taken from Spanish.
Tú eres mi amiga. (You are my friend). [...
- 127
1
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0
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97
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Must subjectless infinitives exhibit subject control when used as complements(traditionally direct objects) of other verbs?
In English, the answer will be yes in most cases, but one thesis cast doubt on this. The author provided an example taken from BNC:
My mother helped [PRO] to cater for the funeral tea, which were ...
- 127
4
votes
1
answer
171
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Which languages marks grammatically for social relationships?
Which languages apart from Japanese, Korean and Javanese encode systematically the relationships between speaker, hearer and referent by means of grammar markers and special sets of vocabulary?
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