358 John Hajek12. Head- vs. dependent-marking
with adjective type 12 Head- vs. dependent-marking and correlation
Dixon presents in Chapter i the hypothesis that a cross-linguistic correlation
may exist between morphosyntactic type (head- vs. dependent-marking) and
the (non-)verb-like behaviour of adjectives. It is suggested that in head-marking
languages, adjectives will tend to be verb-like whilst in dependent-marking lan-
guages they will tend to be non-verb-like. Languages which are neither head- nor
dependent-marking will tend to have verb-like adjectives. Apparent discrepan-
cies, such as dependent-marking Japanese, with its class of verb-like inflected ad-
jectives, may tentatively be explained by careful inspection of historical changes to
show that changes in adjective type lag behind a change in the overall system of
grammatical relations.
The thirteen languages described in detail in this volume provide cautious sup-
port for the hypothesized distribution, but with a number of apparent exceptions.
Marking types fall into at least four categories in our sample. Of the head-mark-
ing languages, North-East Ambae and Wolof have verb-like adjectives as predict-
ed, but in Jarawara and Mam adjectives are clearly non-verbal. However, Jarawara
shows some traces of dependent-marking from an earlier phase of its history. With
respect to mixed head-/dependent-marking languages, adjectives in Qiang and
Semelai show verb-like behaviour, but in Papantla Totonac they are definitely not
verb-like. Tariana and Manange have mixed adjective systems which may reflect to
some degree the mixed marking systems they have. Of the three dependent-mark-
ing languages, Russian has a fundamentally non-verb-like system. With respect to
Japanese, Dixon is able to explain cogently the existence of an older verb-like class
alongside a newer noun-like class. But Korean with its verb-like adjectives is rec-
ognized as a clear exception. The verb-like nature of adjectives in Lao is consistent
with the absence of head- and dependent-marking in that language. Overall, it can
be stated that there is a tendency for languages with verb-like adjectives (as part of
a single or mixed system) to be either fully or at least partially head-marking.
13. Adjectives by any other name? Evidence for
an independent class of attributive-only adjectives
Authors describing adjectives in this volume have focused on the description and
analysis of adjectives that function as both modifier in the noun phrase and as either
intransitive predicate head or copula complement at clause level. Dixon in Chap-
ter i notes, however, that adjectives may be restricted in their functions in some
languages.
Evidence in our language sample of adjectives with exclusively non-attributive
behaviour is largely restricted to verb-like short form adjectives in Russian. These
no longer productively modify nouns, and are today losing ground in copula com-
plements to noun-like long forms.