1 Adjective Classes in Typological Perspective 23apply when a noun is modified by an adjective (Welmers and Welmers 1969).
The other variation on the prototypical pattern is for an adjective to make up
a complete NP. In some languages this can be described as the adjective becom-
ing head of the NP, but in most instances it is better treated as an NP whose head
noun has been omitted (under certain discourse conditions), which consists just
of a modifier. In languages with gender, the ellipsed noun is likely to determine the
gender of the modifier adjective. The possibilities for ellipsis can depend on some
characteristic of the head noun; for example, in Modern Standard Arabic, only a
noun with human reference can be omitted.
Generally, when an adjective occurs without a noun in an NP, it may not receive
any syntactic modification. That is, an NP may consist of a noun plus one or more
adjectives; or it may just consist of an adjective; this applies, for example, in Amele
(Papuan region; Roberts 1987:155).
A further criterion, in some languages, lies in the existence of a pre-modifier
'very', which can apply to adjectives but not to nouns. This applies in Buriat (Poppe
1960) and in Quechua (Cole 1982:99), among many other languages.
6.2.2. Morphological possibilitiesOne of the most useful criteria for distinguishing between nouns and adjectives is
gender or noun classes. In Latin, for instance, each noun belongs to just one of the
three genders, while an adjective can be in any gender, agreeing with the noun it
is modifying. A similar criterion is given by Sokolov (1967: 43) for Avestan and by
Fortune (1942: 55-6) for the Papuan language Arapesh; and see the discussion of
Russian in Chapter 8.
However, this criterion is not always watertight. In Dyirbal a noun is generally
accompanied by a noun marker, a determiner-like element which indicates loca-
tion/visibility, agrees with the noun in case, and marks the noun class of the noun
(this is not shown on the noun itself). Most nouns relate to just one noun class,
while most adjectives can occur with a noun marker of any class. Compare (noting
that in fact the words in an NP can occur in any order):
(27) (a) bayiyam (28) (a) bayi (yam) midi
'man 'small (man)'
(b) balan yibi (b) balan (yibi) midi
'woman 'small (woman)'
(c) balam mirrany (c) balam (mirrany) midi
'black bean 'small (black bean)'
(d) bala diban (d) bala (diban) midi
'stone' 'small (stone)'
The noun marker 'there' (shown by initial ba-), in absolutive case, has four forms,
masculine bayi, feminine balan, edible balam, and neuter bala (see Dixon 1972
for full details). Now a head noun can be omitted from an NP (under discourse