Relational noun

Relational nouns or relator nouns are a class of words used in many languages. They are characterized as functioning syntactically as nouns, although they convey the meaning for which other languages use adpositions (i.e. prepositions and postpositions). In Central America, the use of relational nouns constitutes an areal feature of the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area, including the Mayan languages, Mixe–Zoquean languages, and Oto-Manguean languages.[1] Relational nouns are also widespread in South-East Asia (e.g. Vietnamese, Thai), East Asia (e.g. Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan), Central Asia (e.g. the Turkic languages), the Munda languages of South Asia (e.g. Sora), and in Micronesian languages.

A relational noun is grammatically speaking a simple noun, but because its meaning describes a spatial or temporal relation rather than a "thing", it describes location, movement, and other relations just as prepositions do in the languages that have them. When used the noun is owned by another noun and describes a relation between its "owner" and a third noun. For example, one could say "the cup is the table its-surface", where "its surface" is a relational noun denoting the position of something standing on a flat surface.

E.g., in Classical Nahuatl:

Ca

Be

ī-pan

its-on

petlatl

mat

in

the

mistōn.

cat

Ca ī-pan petlatl in mistōn.

Be its-on mat the cat

"The cat is on the mat.'

Similarly, in Japanese:

猫はむしろの上に寝ている。

Neko

Cat

wa

[topic]

mushiro

mat

no

's

ue

top/above

ni

[case marker]

neteiru.

sleeps/lies

Neko wa mushiro no ue ni neteiru.

Cat [topic] mat 's top/above {[case marker]} sleeps/lies

'The cat is sleeping on top of the mat.'

In Mandarin Chinese:

她在房子里头。

Tā

She

zài

be.at

fángzi

house

lǐtou.

interior

Tā zài fángzi lǐtou.

She be.at house interior

"She is in the house.'

Or, in Turkish:

Otel-in

Hotel-'s

ön-ün-de

front-its-at

bir

one

araba

car

var.

existent

Otel-in ön-ün-de bir araba var.

Hotel-'s front-its-at one car existent

'There is a car in front of the hotel.'

Often relational nouns will be derived from, or related in meaning to, words for bodyparts, so that for example to say "inside" one will say "its stomach" or to say "on top of" one will say "its back".

See also

References
  1. Campbell, Lyle; Terrence Kaufman; Thomas Smith Stark (September 1986). "Meso-America as a linguistic area". Language. Washington, DC: Linguistic Society of America. 62 (3): 530–558. doi:10.2307/415477. ISSN 0097-8507. JSTOR 415477. OCLC 1361911.

Sources
  • Starosta, Stanley (1985). "Relator nouns as a source of case inflection". In Venetta Z. Acson and Richard L. Leed (ed.). For Gordon H. Fairbanks. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. pp. 111–133. ISBN 0-8248-0992-0.


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