Word order of attributive constructions (Northern Mansi)

AdjN: The attributive adjective precedes the modified noun.


(1) jomas χum
good person
‘good person’ (Kálmán 1976: 66)


(2) posǝŋ χōtal
bright day
‘bright day’ (Kálmán 1976: 42)


(3) lujmas kapaj
ice_axe huge
‘huge ice axe’ (Popova 2001: 64)


In Northern Mansi, the attributive adjective precedes the head noun (Kálmán 1976;  Rombandeeva-Vahruseva 1984; Kulonen 1989; Riese 2001) (1), (2). There are, however, two adjectives, which are always postpositional:  kapaj ‘huge’ (Sipőcz 1999, Skribnik 2014) and mōjtǝŋ ‘deceased’. These exceptions, being typologically irrelevant, were not considered in specifying the parameter value.

Author: 

Szilvia Németh