''Prenoun'' is the term for adjective-like prefixes that attach to nouns in
Algonquian languages
The Algonquian languages ( or ; also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Indigenous languages of the Americas, indigenous American languages that include most languages in the Algic languages, Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language f ...
,
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
, and
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
.
[Mühlbauer, Jeff]
Reduplication in Nêhiyawêwin (Plains Cree)''
section 2.2
Algonquian languages
For example, in Nêhiyawêwin (
Plains Cree), the term for "cat" is ''minôs''. With the addition of the prenoun ''wâpiski-'' ("white"), the term ''wâpiski-minôs'' means "white cat." With the prenoun ''misi-'' ("big"), it becomes ''misi-minôs,'' meaning "big cat."
[Mühlbauer, Jeff]
Reduplication in Nêhiyawêwin (Plains Cree)''
section 2.2, example 18
Prenouns can also be attached to verbs and then are referred to by the term "
preverb
Although not widely accepted in linguistics, the term preverb is used in Caucasian (including all three families: Northwest Caucasian, Northeast Caucasian and Kartvelian), Caddoan, Athabaskan, and Algonquian linguistics to describe certain eleme ...
";
''misi-mîcsow'', "s/he eats a lot"
Korean
In Korean, prenouns are used to modify
pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase.
Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not co ...
s,
numerals, and
noun
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
s. They are different from
adjective
In linguistics, an adjective (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that generally grammatical modifier, modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.
Tra ...
s in Korean. While adjectives may be conjugated in Korean, prenouns cannot. As well, prenouns modify but adjectives merely indicate the state of an object:
In that sentence, the word "delicious" is a prenoun. It is not conjugated and modifies the object of the sentence. Compared with the following sentence:
"Delicious" is there conjugated and also becomes an adjective. It is used to indicate the current state of the object.
References
{{reflist
Grammar
it:Prenome