Hallo!

On Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:06:09 +0100, Christophe Grandsire-Koevoets wrote:

> 2009/11/23 Peter Bleackley <[log in to unmask]>
> 
> > I have previously heard on this very list that Latin has to do this in 
> > this 
> > situation, as prepositional phrases can only be used as predicates, not as
> > attributes. The Greek, I believe, simply says "Our Father in heaven", and
> > the traditional English translation is based on the Vulgate, rather than 
> > the 
> > Greek.
> >
> >
> Indeed. Actually, it's something I've often wondered. Modern European
> languages seem to be quite free in allowing prepositional phrases as
> attributes, but I've always wondered whether that freedom was common across
> the world.
> 
> I know I've played a lot with the idea to restrict this freedom. My Moten,
> for instance, only allows genitive phrases to complete other nouns. Its
> solution to get other types of phrases to complete nouns isn't relative
> clauses, but *surdéclinaison*, i.e. the fully inflected form is inflected
> again in the genitive case to allow it to complete a noun (I copied this
> from Basque :) ). In Maggel, attributive prepositional phrases are formed
> differently from predicative prepositional phrases, and a noun with an
> attributive prepositional phrase must be in the construct state.
> 
> What do you all do in your conlangs?

In Old Albic, oblique NPs (the language has a rich case system, and the
prepositions it has are actually case forms of nouns expressing
relationships with their "objects" in the partitive/locative case which 
encodes inalienable possessors) may modify nouns, and they undergo what
you call "surdéclinaison" (also known as _Suffixaufnahme_):

(1) Alaphsa a chvana bauman anthalan alalan cathalalan.
    AOR-run-3SG:A the:AGT dog-AGT tree-ALL face-LOC-ALL the-LOC-LOC-ALL 
    house-LOC-LOC-ALL
    'The dog ran to the tree in front of the house.'

Without suffixaufnahme (which is only mandatory if the modifiers are
moved away from their head nouns):

(1') Alaphsa a chvana bauman anthal al cathal.
     AOR-run-3SG:A the:AGT dog-AGT tree-ALL face-LOC the-LOC house-LOC

As you can see, the noun _bauman_ 'tree-ALL' takes no article as it
is in the construct state.

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