Chapter 7 Nominals and noun phrases
This chapter examines the structure of the noun phrase (NP). The elements that
comprise the NP are detailed: nouns and their attendant morphology, pronouns,
demonstratives, possessors, quantifiers and numerals, and adjectival and prepo-
sitional modifiers. The chapter also describes the various combinations of these
elements and how they are structured.
1. Nominal types
A variety of constituents can be the head of the NP, including underived nouns,
pronouns, derived nouns, and clauses. The types of underived nouns are listed
in (1).
(1) Noun roots
common
count: korse ‘chair’, roma ‘house’, oreng ‘person’, sape ‘cow’...
mass: nase' ‘rice’, gula ‘sugar’, paser ‘sand’, aeng ‘water’...
proper
place names: Madura, Bangkalan, Gunong Gegger ‘Mt. Gegger’...
person names: Ali, Hasan, Hadi, Ita, Siti...
Of course, derived nouns can also be divided into count and mass types, which
evince the same differences as common noun roots, e.g. pajalanan ‘traveler’
and kabadha'an ‘existence’. The difference essentially boils down to whether or
not a numeral can quantify the noun: as to be expected, count nouns are compat-
ible with numeral quantifiers (2a), while mass nouns are not (2b).
(2) a. settong korse ‘one chair’, ennem sape ‘six cows’, sapolo gunong
‘ten mountains’, lema pajalanan ‘five travelers’
b. settong nase', ennam susu, sapolo aeng, lema kabadha'an
2. Nominal morphology
There are both inflectional and derivational processes that are relevant to nouns.