Dogon adjective-numeral inversion

What is it about?

The usual order noun-adjective-numeral (N-Adj-Num) in Dogon languages is optionally inverted to N-Num-Adj in the presence of an additional modifier that functions as inversion licensor.

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Why is it important?

Dogon adjectives control tone-dropping on nouns (and any intervening words including inverted numerals). Numerals do not control this tone-dropping on preceding words. The combinations show that the tonosyntactic operation of tone-dropping follows inversion, which must therefore apply while adjectives and nouns remain syntactically distinct.

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