3 The Noun Phrase
3.8 Attributive phrases
Nouns in Wutun are frequently modified by genitive attributes, relative clauses and adjective attributes. Wutun genitive attributes and relative clauses share two formal properties: they always precede the head noun and they are connected to the head noun with the attributive marker -de. Therefore, I will discuss them under common label attributive phrases. Adjective attributes are also marked by -de, but they differ from other types of attributes in that they can occur either in attributive phrases before the noun, or as nominalized adjectives after the noun.
The grammatical function of attributive phrases is to restrict the reference of the head noun. The Wutun attributive marker -de (SM -deⲴ) has cognates in several other Sinitic languages, which mark genitive attributes and relative clauses with the same morpheme. The core function of this marker is nominalization (see Section 4.11), but as nominalizers in other Sino-Tibetan languages, -de in Wutun extends beyond its core function and it goes on to mark adverbial subordinate clauses, relative clauses and exclamations, as well as genitive attributes and post-nominal adjective attributes.3 Genitive attributes are discussed in Section 3.8.1 and relative clauses in Section 3.8.2. Adjective attributes are dealt with in Section 3.8.3.
3 In glossing -de, I will take into a consideration the syntactic construction in which it is used. I will gloss -de as
ATTR=ATTRIBUTIVE when it is used to connect attributive phrases (genitive attributes and relative clauses) to the head noun and the label NMLZ=NOMINALIZER will be reserved for cases where -de marks nominalizations occurring as arguments of the clause, subordinate clauses or non-embedded nominalization constructions.
Several other descriptions of Sino-Tibetan languages follow the same practice (see e.g. Yue 2003: 113 for Sinitic languages; Hargreaves 2003: 379 for Kathmandu Newar), because it is common in these languages that a nominalizer is used as an attributive marker.
99 3.8.1 Genitive attributes
The attributive -de is often used in genitive attributes to connect two noun phrases and to indicate a semantic association between them. The most common semantic associations expressed by -de include possession and part-whole relationships. In (230) and (231) -de is used as a genitive to indicate association between the possessor and the possessed:
(230) dojjai-de jhi-ge lai-gu-ma-li=mu
PN-ATTR a few-REF come-COMPL-RES.PO-SEN.INF=INTERR
‘Has Dojjai’s family come back?’ (Conversation 2_Thangkas, Smoking and Car)
(231) je nga-n-de mize-de yang
this 1-COLL-ATTR younger sister-ATTR sheep hai-li
EQU-SEN.INF
‘This is our little sister’s sheep.’ (Xiawu Dongzhou)
In Standard Mandarin, which also has genitive attributes marked by -de, it is possible to omit -de in cases of inalienable possession when the possessor is a personal pronoun and the possessed is a family member or a relative. In Wutun, this rule does not hold and there is no formal distinction between alienable and inalienable possession. In my data, -de was always used even when talking about close relatives:
(232) ngu-de ana lo-gu-ma-li
1SG-ATTR mother old-COMPL-RES.PO-SEN.INF
‘My mother has become old.’ (Xiawu Dongzhou)
In addition to possession, -de also marks other types of associations where two nouns belong together. These include part-whole relationships, such as body parts (as in 233) and phrases indicating location (as in 234):
(233) ngu-de la da-qai-lio
1SG-ATTR foot hit-get broken-PFV
‘My foot got broken.’(Xiawu Dongzhou)
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(234) da waiwo-de zzojjhen hai-yek
then Nepal-ATTR tradition EQU-EGO
‘… (this thangka painting), it is a Nepalese tradition.’ (The Wutun Village)
Finally, attributive phrases are used with postpositions. Wutun has a class of postpositions that express various temporal and spatial meanings, as well as the meanings
‘among’, ‘in addition to’ and ‘together’. When postpositions are used with a noun, the noun is often connected to the postposition with -de. Postpositions are discussed in Section 5.1; here are two examples:
(235) do-shek-de mian qhichai-ge lai-di-li
left-hand-ATTR side car-REF come-PROGR-SEN.INF
‘The car was coming on the left side (of the road).’ (Bike)
(236) yegai-de hanqai lha la jho-di-li
letter-ATTR in addition deity also teach-PROGR-SEN.INF
‘In addition to writing, thangka painting is taught (at schools) as well.’
(The Wutun Village)
3.8.2 Relative clauses
Nominalization and relativization systems are essentially the same in Wutun; Wutun relative clauses are nominalized clauses preposed as modifiers to the head noun, and there are no relative pronouns. Examples (237), (238) and (239) illustrate Wutun relative clauses. Both nouns and pronouns can occur as heads of the relative clauses. Wutun allows relativization of both core and non-core arguments, such as Agents (as in 237), Patients (as in 238) and instrumental-like arguments (as in 239):
(237) gu-liangge jhang menzai conjena
DIST-SOC nowadays as for this
je-de hua je-ge-ha
this-ATTR speech this-REF-OD
xijjek ze-di-de ren ra
research do-PROGR-ATTR person also
zaige do-li some (be) many-SEN.INF
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‘Therefore, nowadays, this language, as for it, there are quite many people doing research on it (lit. many research-doing people). (The Wutun Village)
(238) ni sho-de gu ngu ddo-la-li
2SG say-ATTR that 1SG agree-INCOMPL-SEN.INF
‘That, what you are saying, I agree (with you).’ (Cairangji)
(239) nga-ha huaiqa mai-de yenze yek 1SG.OBL-OD book buy-ATTR money EXIST
‘I have money for buying books.’ (Xiawu Dongzhou)
For more examples on relative clauses, see Sections 4.11.2 and 10.2.2.
3.8.3 Adjective attributes
Adjectives in Wutun show mixed verbal and nominal features. They can be used as predicates like verbs. When used as predicates, they occur as the final element in the clause like verbs and take all the verbal markers, such as aspect and evidential marking; in other words, Wutun has no predication construction specifically for property words. However, Wutun does have an attributive construction specifically for property words and this allows postulating adjectives as a distinct word class. Adjective attributes in Wutun can either precede or follow the head noun. When attributive adjectives precede the head noun, they occur in relative clauses like verbs:
(240) da ngu-jhege jjekzhen je-ge-li then 1-PAUC world this-REF-LOC
zui xho-de ti she-li qhi-de
most good-ATTR place on-LOC go-NMLZ
‘We will go to the best place in the world…’ (Picnic)
While relative clauses obligatorily precede the noun, adjective attributes can also be used post-nominally:
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(241) nga-ha zzon-la-da gu gu-duru
1SG.OBL-OD for someone-ABL-then that that-PL
xaige xang~xang-de-ge hai-de very delicious-delicious-NMLZ-REF EQU-NMLZ
‘I find those (traditional dishes of our village) very delicious.’
(Traditional Food)
The two structures for attributive adjectives have different morphology. Post-nominal adjective attributes are marked as referential by the suffix -ge4, while -ge cannot be used in relative clauses. In addition, post-nominal adjective attributes are typically reduplicated, while verbs and adjectives occurring in relative clauses are not. Post-nominal adjective attributes can be formed adjectives of both Chinese (as in 241) and Tibetan origin (as in 242).
In adjectives with Tibetan origin, such as the adjective yak, ‘beautiful’ in (242), the incompletive suffix -la (see Section 6.3.1) has become part of the verb stem and it is reduplicated when the adjective is used attributively. Genetti (2011) has shown that in Tibeto-Burman languages nominalized adjectival verbs occurring in relative clauses often give rise to adjectives as unique lexical class. In the majority of cases, adjectival verb is the only element in the relative clause, resulting in a one-word phrase that expresses a property of a noun. This structure can easily be reinterpreted as derived lexical adjective (Genetti 2011:
181-182). It seems possible that in Wutun the nominalizer -de can be used to derive true lexical adjectives from property words that occur in relative clauses. This may be the result of language contact, because Tibetan has a distinct class of adjectives that are derived through nominalization. In Tibetic languages, adjective attributes derived through nominalization often occur after the noun, while in Standard Mandarin adjective attributes always precede the noun. The language contact with Amdo Tibetan has most probably contributed to the word order change in relative clauses that allows the adjectives to occur post-nominally.
4 In the case of adjective attributes, -ge could be alternatively analysed as a clitic because it attaches to the last element of the adjectival phrase and the phrase as a whole is marked as referential.
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