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The Form of Structure, the Structure of Form: Essays in honor of Jean Lowenstamm
Edited by Sabrina Bendjaballah, Noam Faust, Mohamed Lahrouchi and Nicola Lampitelli
[Language Faculty and Beyond 12] 2014
► pp. 361–374

The interpretation of Construct-State morphology

| The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The paper argues that both nouns and adjectives are interpreted as relational in the construct state. Accordingly, relational nouns can all be inflected in the construct state, and so can some sortal nouns which can be coerced to a relational interpretation. Similarly, relational adjectives can all be inflected in the construct state, and so can some predicative adjectives which can be reinterpreted as relational when in construct with a relational annex. The present approach accounts for the non-modifiability of such relational annex, and the restriction of its denotation to intra-individual relations. The latter restriction also accounts for the possible reinterpretation of a possessive affix on the annex of a nominal construct as the possessor of the construct as a whole.

Published online: 17 December 2014
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lfab.12.28dor
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