The ‘new adjectives’ of Tswana
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Denis Creissels
Abstract
In addition to a class of adjectives inherited from Proto-Bantu, characterized by a set of class agreement prefixes identical to the class prefixes of nouns, Tswana has words expressing meanings of the type commonly expressed by adjectives. These occur in the same syntactic positions as the words traditionally identified as adjectives, but different from them in class agreement morphology, since the agreement prefixes they take in attributive function are different from the class prefixes of nouns, and coincide with the subject markers attached to non-verbal predicates in descriptive predication. Most of these words also have nominal uses with meanings related to the meanings they express as adjectives. The paper concludes that the ‘new adjectives’ constitute an emerging word class whose development follows from the use of nouns as descriptive predicates in a predicative construction typically used with adjectives in predicate function.
Abstract
In addition to a class of adjectives inherited from Proto-Bantu, characterized by a set of class agreement prefixes identical to the class prefixes of nouns, Tswana has words expressing meanings of the type commonly expressed by adjectives. These occur in the same syntactic positions as the words traditionally identified as adjectives, but different from them in class agreement morphology, since the agreement prefixes they take in attributive function are different from the class prefixes of nouns, and coincide with the subject markers attached to non-verbal predicates in descriptive predication. Most of these words also have nominal uses with meanings related to the meanings they express as adjectives. The paper concludes that the ‘new adjectives’ constitute an emerging word class whose development follows from the use of nouns as descriptive predicates in a predicative construction typically used with adjectives in predicate function.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword and acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
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PART I. Types of word classes
- Carving verb classes from corpora 17
- Classes of creation verbs 37
- On Light Nouns 51
- The ‘new adjectives’ of Tswana 75
- The Chinese adjective as a word class 95
- Qualifying modifier encoding and adjectival typology 119
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PART II. Minor and neglected word classes
- Hungarian is a classifier language 141
- Cardinal numerals 161
- On the borders of neglected word classes 181
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PART III. Across word classes
- Between adjective and noun 203
- On decategorization and its relevance in German 227
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PART IV. Radical views: Do we really need word classes?
- Word-class features and reduplicative meaning 245
- Half and other unique words 263
- Index of languages 283
- Index of names 285
- Index of subjects 289
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword and acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
-
PART I. Types of word classes
- Carving verb classes from corpora 17
- Classes of creation verbs 37
- On Light Nouns 51
- The ‘new adjectives’ of Tswana 75
- The Chinese adjective as a word class 95
- Qualifying modifier encoding and adjectival typology 119
-
PART II. Minor and neglected word classes
- Hungarian is a classifier language 141
- Cardinal numerals 161
- On the borders of neglected word classes 181
-
PART III. Across word classes
- Between adjective and noun 203
- On decategorization and its relevance in German 227
-
PART IV. Radical views: Do we really need word classes?
- Word-class features and reduplicative meaning 245
- Half and other unique words 263
- Index of languages 283
- Index of names 285
- Index of subjects 289
