A grammar of Pite Saami, 2014

11.2 Nominal phrases
(9) mån lev máhttam sámev ságastit
mån [le-v máhtta-m] V C sáme-v [ságasti-t] V C
1sg.nom be-1sg.prs can-prf Saami-acc.sg speak-inf
‘I have been able to speak Saami.’ [sje20121009.46m27s]e
The corpus does not provide any evidence for three-verb VCs with a modal
verb as the finite verb, so whether this logically possible structures is acceptable
must be left to future research. However, it is clear that the negation verb is only
attested as a finite verb, and can never occur as the second or third verb in a
multi-verb VC.
11.2 Nominal phrases
Nominal phrases (abbreviated ‘NP’) in Pite Saami are divided into two groups:
• full NPs
• pronouns
NPs can function as arguments, adjuncts, predicates, adverbials, dependents of
postpositions and possessors or modifiers of other NPs. They consist of at least
one nominal component that inflects for case and number. Note that NPs can
also be modified by postpositional phrases and non-finite verb forms, but due to
a lack of sufficient data, a description of these NP modifiers must be left for future
study. Finally, relative clauses also modify an NP; these are covered in §14.2.4.
NPs have the structure illustrated in (10), with optional components in parentheses.
(10) [(demonstrative) + (other modifier(s)) + nominal + (refl-intensifier) + (rel-clause)] N P
Either a noun or a pronoun forms the head of an NP. The demonstrative, the
nominal and any attributive reflexive pronoun always inflect for case and number,
while generally the other modifiers do not. Other modifiers may be an adjectival
phrase, a numeral or an NP in genitive case. An intensifier in the form of
a reflexive pronoun (cf. §6.3) can modify a noun phrase as well, and occurs after
the head. Finally, the head can be modified by a relative clause, which also occurs
after the head. Some examples for possible NP structures are found below.
The only NP in (11) consists solely of the noun Tjeggelvasav ‘Lake Tjeggelvas’.
(11) ja
ja
dä vuojnav
dä vuojna-v
and then see-1sg.prs
‘And then I see Lake Tjeggelvas.’
Tjeggelvasav
[Tjeggelvasa-v] N P
Lake.Tjeggelvas-acc.sg
[pit100404.013]
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