Are there any languages which inflect the noun for morphosyntactic categories normally reserved for verbs (e.g. tense, aspect, etc.)?

Clash Royale CLAN TAG#URR8PPP

up vote
2
down vote

favorite

1

In English (for example), we say "I go/went/was going/etc.", inflecting the verb for tense and aspect while leaving the subject of the sentence unchanged. But are there any languages that would instead inflect the noun/pronoun? For example, suppose English were to have a nominal inflectional mark "-tu" indicating past tense: "Shetu go" instead of "she went."

Or are there at least languages where the noun must agree with the verb and not the other way around? So, using the made-up inflectional marker from earlier, we might say "Shetu went" instead of either "Shetu go" or "She went."

And if not, why not? It seems particularly strange (or "asymmetric") given that (in many languages), nominal inflectional categories like person or number affect the inflection of the verb (via concord).

morphology linguistic-typology inflection morphosyntax morphological-typology

share|improve this question

asked 4 hours ago

ubadub

2669

add a comment | 

up vote
2
down vote

favorite

1

In English (for example), we say "I go/went/was going/etc.", inflecting the verb for tense and aspect while leaving the subject of the sentence unchanged. But are there any languages that would instead inflect the noun/pronoun? For example, suppose English were to have a nominal inflectional mark "-tu" indicating past tense: "Shetu go" instead of "she went."

Or are there at least languages where the noun must agree with the verb and not the other way around? So, using the made-up inflectional marker from earlier, we might say "Shetu went" instead of either "Shetu go" or "She went."

And if not, why not? It seems particularly strange (or "asymmetric") given that (in many languages), nominal inflectional categories like person or number affect the inflection of the verb (via concord).

morphology linguistic-typology inflection morphosyntax morphological-typology

share|improve this question

asked 4 hours ago

ubadub

2669

add a comment | 

up vote
2
down vote

favorite

1

up vote
2
down vote

favorite

1

1

In English (for example), we say "I go/went/was going/etc.", inflecting the verb for tense and aspect while leaving the subject of the sentence unchanged. But are there any languages that would instead inflect the noun/pronoun? For example, suppose English were to have a nominal inflectional mark "-tu" indicating past tense: "Shetu go" instead of "she went."

Or are there at least languages where the noun must agree with the verb and not the other way around? So, using the made-up inflectional marker from earlier, we might say "Shetu went" instead of either "Shetu go" or "She went."

And if not, why not? It seems particularly strange (or "asymmetric") given that (in many languages), nominal inflectional categories like person or number affect the inflection of the verb (via concord).

morphology linguistic-typology inflection morphosyntax morphological-typology

share|improve this question

asked 4 hours ago

ubadub

2669

In English (for example), we say "I go/went/was going/etc.", inflecting the verb for tense and aspect while leaving the subject of the sentence unchanged. But are there any languages that would instead inflect the noun/pronoun? For example, suppose English were to have a nominal inflectional mark "-tu" indicating past tense: "Shetu go" instead of "she went."

Or are there at least languages where the noun must agree with the verb and not the other way around? So, using the made-up inflectional marker from earlier, we might say "Shetu went" instead of either "Shetu go" or "She went."

And if not, why not? It seems particularly strange (or "asymmetric") given that (in many languages), nominal inflectional categories like person or number affect the inflection of the verb (via concord).

morphology linguistic-typology inflection morphosyntax morphological-typology

morphology linguistic-typology inflection morphosyntax morphological-typology

share|improve this question

asked 4 hours ago

ubadub

2669

share|improve this question

asked 4 hours ago

ubadub

2669

share|improve this question

share|improve this question

asked 4 hours ago

ubadub

2669

asked 4 hours ago

ubadub

2669

asked 4 hours ago

ubadub

2669

2669

add a comment | 

add a comment | 

1 Answer
1

active

oldest

votes

up vote
3
down vote

There is a fair amount of literature referencing languages that mark tense on nouns (e.g. this Tonhauser paper: https://www.asc.ohio-state.edu/tonhauser.1/papers/sub9tonhauser.pdf). From what I remember, the meaning of a past-tense-marked noun may be along the lines of “an ex-/former [noun]”; I don’t think it’s common for clausal tense to be marked on a non-pronominal noun in the clause.

There are also languages that use different “subject pronouns” for different tenses of the associated clause.

Here is a relevant Wikipedia article: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominal_TAM

share|improve this answer

edited 4 hours ago

answered 4 hours ago

sumelic

7,70211542

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  Thanks. I'll accept this answer if you can provide specific examples of each.
  – ubadub
  4 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

Your Answer

StackExchange.ready(function()
var channelOptions =
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "312"
;
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function()
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled)
StackExchange.using("snippets", function()
createEditor();
);

else
createEditor();

);

function createEditor()
StackExchange.prepareEditor(
heartbeatType: 'answer',
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: false,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
);



);

 

draft saved

draft discarded

Sign up or log in

StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);

Sign up using Google

Sign up using Facebook

Sign up using Email and Password

Post as a guest

Name Email

StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2flinguistics.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f29550%2fare-there-any-languages-which-inflect-the-noun-for-morphosyntactic-categories-no%23new-answer', 'question_page');

);

Post as a guest

Name Email

1 Answer
1

active

oldest

votes

1 Answer
1

active

oldest

votes

active

oldest

votes

active

oldest

votes

up vote
3
down vote

There is a fair amount of literature referencing languages that mark tense on nouns (e.g. this Tonhauser paper: https://www.asc.ohio-state.edu/tonhauser.1/papers/sub9tonhauser.pdf). From what I remember, the meaning of a past-tense-marked noun may be along the lines of “an ex-/former [noun]”; I don’t think it’s common for clausal tense to be marked on a non-pronominal noun in the clause.

There are also languages that use different “subject pronouns” for different tenses of the associated clause.

Here is a relevant Wikipedia article: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominal_TAM

share|improve this answer

edited 4 hours ago

answered 4 hours ago

sumelic

7,70211542

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  Thanks. I'll accept this answer if you can provide specific examples of each.
  – ubadub
  4 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

up vote
3
down vote

There is a fair amount of literature referencing languages that mark tense on nouns (e.g. this Tonhauser paper: https://www.asc.ohio-state.edu/tonhauser.1/papers/sub9tonhauser.pdf). From what I remember, the meaning of a past-tense-marked noun may be along the lines of “an ex-/former [noun]”; I don’t think it’s common for clausal tense to be marked on a non-pronominal noun in the clause.

There are also languages that use different “subject pronouns” for different tenses of the associated clause.

Here is a relevant Wikipedia article: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominal_TAM

share|improve this answer

edited 4 hours ago

answered 4 hours ago

sumelic

7,70211542

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  Thanks. I'll accept this answer if you can provide specific examples of each.
  – ubadub
  4 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

up vote
3
down vote

up vote
3
down vote

There is a fair amount of literature referencing languages that mark tense on nouns (e.g. this Tonhauser paper: https://www.asc.ohio-state.edu/tonhauser.1/papers/sub9tonhauser.pdf). From what I remember, the meaning of a past-tense-marked noun may be along the lines of “an ex-/former [noun]”; I don’t think it’s common for clausal tense to be marked on a non-pronominal noun in the clause.

There are also languages that use different “subject pronouns” for different tenses of the associated clause.

Here is a relevant Wikipedia article: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominal_TAM

share|improve this answer

edited 4 hours ago

answered 4 hours ago

sumelic

7,70211542

There is a fair amount of literature referencing languages that mark tense on nouns (e.g. this Tonhauser paper: https://www.asc.ohio-state.edu/tonhauser.1/papers/sub9tonhauser.pdf). From what I remember, the meaning of a past-tense-marked noun may be along the lines of “an ex-/former [noun]”; I don’t think it’s common for clausal tense to be marked on a non-pronominal noun in the clause.

There are also languages that use different “subject pronouns” for different tenses of the associated clause.

Here is a relevant Wikipedia article: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominal_TAM

share|improve this answer

edited 4 hours ago

answered 4 hours ago

sumelic

7,70211542

share|improve this answer

share|improve this answer

edited 4 hours ago

edited 4 hours ago

edited 4 hours ago

answered 4 hours ago

sumelic

7,70211542

answered 4 hours ago

sumelic

7,70211542

answered 4 hours ago

sumelic

7,70211542

7,70211542

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  Thanks. I'll accept this answer if you can provide specific examples of each.
  – ubadub
  4 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  Thanks. I'll accept this answer if you can provide specific examples of each.
  – ubadub
  4 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

Thanks. I'll accept this answer if you can provide specific examples of each.
– ubadub
4 hours ago

Thanks. I'll accept this answer if you can provide specific examples of each.
– ubadub
4 hours ago

add a comment | 

 

draft saved

draft discarded

 

draft saved

draft discarded

Sign up or log in

StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);

Sign up using Google

Sign up using Facebook

Sign up using Email and Password

Post as a guest

Name Email

StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2flinguistics.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f29550%2fare-there-any-languages-which-inflect-the-noun-for-morphosyntactic-categories-no%23new-answer', 'question_page');

);

Post as a guest

Name Email

Sign up or log in

StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);

Sign up using Google

Sign up using Facebook

Sign up using Email and Password

Post as a guest

Name Email

Sign up or log in

StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);

Sign up using Google

Sign up using Facebook

Sign up using Email and Password

Post as a guest

Name Email

Sign up or log in

StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);

Sign up using Google

Sign up using Facebook

Sign up using Email and Password

Sign up using Google

Sign up using Facebook

Sign up using Email and Password

Post as a guest

Name Email

Name Email

Name

Email

Name Email

Name

Email