Erromangan Adjectives

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Erromangan AdjectivesLinggwistiks 190. Manahan

Erromangan Adjectives

Crowley, T. (1998). An Erromangan (Sye) grammar. OceanicLinguistics Special Publications27: 144 151.

Adjectives are forms which express stative attributes to nouns, and which follow a nominal head in a noun

phrase. They differ from verbs in that while verbs receive prefixed inflectional marking for a variety of

pronominal and other categories, adjectives have no inflectional marking for these categories.

1.1 Underived Adjectives

Less than sixty underived adjectives have been attested in Sye, with most stative attributes being expressed

either by means of intransitive verbs, or adjectives that are morphologically derived. Some of the more

commonly encountered underived adjectives appear in antonymous pairs, for example armai 'good' and ur

'bad', sais 'fantastic, attractive' and itcomovki 'appalling', orog 'big' and viroc 'little', nivorih 'huge' and vilkih 'tiny',

mampum 'first' and avni 'last', ndomo 'hard, difficult, strong' and melucluc 'soft, easy, weak', tantop 'long, tall' and

potcon'short', inpalam'deep' and ikri'shallow', meveh'right' and mor'left'. However, there is a substantial residue

of adjectives which do not belong to semantically related pairs of this type, for example tompor'holy', umrocri

'lame', morihai 'strange', itsogku 'whole'. Some of these forms, in fact, have antonyms or semantically closely

related forms that are expressed as verbs. The class of adjectives is somewhat difficult to delimit absolutely inSye. All of the forms just presented can behave adjectivally in that they can follow a noun in a nominal phrase

or they can function as a comment in a non-verbal clause. However, there is a certain amount of overlap with

specific adjectives between the class of adjectives and other word classes. Thus, for example, inpalam 'deep'

and ikri 'shallow' can also function as locational nouns, meaning 'deep place' and 'shore' respectively.

Adjectives such as nimtipat 'blind', ntelgipat 'deaf and nompwehri 'bald' can also function as common nouns,

meaning 'blind person', 'deaf person' and 'bald person' respectively. The adjectives viroc 'small' and potcon

'short' correspond to the formally similar verbs evirocand ompotconrespectively.

1.2 Adjectival Derivation

While there is a relatively small set of underived adjectives, there is a variety of derivational means by whichnew adjectives can be productively derived. The following discussion describes these processes.

(i) Reduplication

Some underived adjectives can be reduplicated to derive an adjective expressing an intensification of the state

indicated by the root. Those adjectives which have been attested with reduplicated derivatives are tantop 'long,

tall',potcon'short', orog 'big', viroc 'small (SG)', ovroc 'small (PL)', ndomo 'strong' and vilkih'tiny'. We therefore find,

for example, viroc-virocmeaning 'very small', in contrast to viroc 'small'.

The adverbial hogku 'also' can be followed by the misdirective suffix -go that is normally only found

on verbs, with the suffixed form being obligatorily reduplicated as hogkugo-hogkugo, to express the meaning of

'same'.

(ii) Stativen-

The prefix n- derives an adjective out of a stative verb, although it is also occasionally attested with non-

stative intransitive verbs which can be associated with the expression of a state. Thus, from mevyac 'dream' we

can derive n-mevyac 'dreamy'. Adjectives derived in this way express stative attributes to the referent of an


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associated noun phrase. Contrast the following, in which telemte 'green' functions in the first example as a verb

and in the second example as an adjective:

Nur co-ntelemte.

place 3sG:FUT-BR:green

'The place will be green.'

Kokeml-ante ra hai nur n-telemte.

lPL.lNCL:PRES-MR:live LOC INDEF place ADJ-green

'We live in a green place.'

These derived forms behave further like adjectives in that they are negated with tawi. Thus, contrast the

following, in which the verb aviar'red' functions verbally in the first example, and adjectivally in the second :

Cotumnavlar ( itur-lau'dried', amon 'hide' > itr-amon 'hidden',

omkai'ripe' > itr-omkai'ripened'.

(iv) Ordinal-gi

Ordinal numerals can be derived from cardinals by the suffix -gi. The resulting derived ordinals are postposed

to nouns in the same way as other adjectives. Thus, nduru 'two' > nduru-gi 'second', ndehel 'three' > ndehel-gi

'third', ndvat'four' > ndvat-gi'fourth', sukrim 'five' > sukrim-gi'fifth'.

(v) Distributive-go

The suffix -go can be added to numerals to express a distributive meaning, as in haiten 'one' > haiten-go 'one

each, by itself, individual', nduru'two' > nduru-go 'two each', ndehel 'three' > ndehel-go 'three each', ndvat'four' >

ndvat-go 'four each', sukrim'five' > sukrim-go 'five each'. Thus:

Cu-vai magko nduru-go.

3PL:DlSTPAST-BR:get mango two-DlST

'They got two mangoes each.'

(vi) Intensive-veh


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The suffix -vehis productively added to adjectives to indicate that the state has been fully or properly achieved.

Thus, armai'good' > armai-veh'very good', tantop 'long' > tantop-veh'very long'.

(vii) Vestigial Affixes

There is a handful of adjectival formatives which appear to be vestigial in that they are each only attested with

a small number of examples. The form ndomo 'strong' involves the addition of the suffix -su to express

intensification, with ndomosumeaning 'very strong'. The prefix it- has been attested with a handful of words

deriving adjectives from words coming from a variety of word classes. Nouns which can be made into

adjectives in this way include natman 'man' > itnatman 'male (SG)', ovatman 'men' > it-ovatman 'male (PL)',

nahiven'woman' > it-nahiven'female (SG)', ovahiven'women' > it-ovahiven'female (PL)'.

Temporal adverbs referring to days in the past from the present can also be prefixed with it- to derive

adjectives referring to food leftover from previous days, for example ninu 'yesterday' > it-ninu 'yesterday's

(food)', nome 'day before yesterday' > it-nome'day before yesterday's (food)'. The interrogative nominal se 'what'

corresponds in shape to it-se 'which' (though the more commonly encountered form expressing this meaningis itoco ). There is a single derivation of this form from an adjectival root, that is viroc 'small' > it-viroc '(of

sibling) younger'. There are two transitive verbs that have been attested with this prefix (with the verbs

appearing in their construct forms), that is elcav- 'touch' > it-elcav-i'polluted by menstruation', en- 'eat' > it-en-i

'edible'.

Finally, there is a small number of other adjectives that begin with it- which may historically reflect

this prefix, though the derivation is no longer synchronically productive. Thus, velom 'come' > it-pelom 'easy'

and velac 'go ahead' > it-pelac 'unique'. Not only is there an unpredictable change from initial v- top-, but the

meanings of the derived forms are also semantically unpredictable.

The prefix un-has been attested in the derivation of a handful of adjectives referring to the state that

is characteristic of the environment referred to by the root. Thus, nu'river' > u-nu'riverine', ntoc 'sea' > u-ntoc

'marine', nam 'talk' > u-nam 'resolute, firm'. This function of un- is clearly historically related to the semi-

productive use of the prefix in the derivation of locational nouns.

(viii) Compounding

There is a small number of adjectives that are derived by compounding a bound nominal root with a

following verb root. Thus, nompu- 'head' + ehri'break' > nompwehri'bald', nimte- 'eye' + ei 'blind' > nimtei 'blind',

nimte- 'eye' + evivat'thick' > nimtevivat'angry-looking'.

1.3 Plural Marking

Morphologically simple adjectives accompanying a noun obligatorily agree with the noun for number, while

derived adjectives optionally distinguish singular and plural forms. The formal means by which plurality is

marked also varies according to whether the adjective is underived or derived.


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(i) Underived Adjectives

Underived adjectives mark plurality by means of the suffix -go (which also has a pluralizing function with a

restricted set of nouns). This is optionally accompanied by the prefix ovn-. While this prefix also marks plural

nouns, as an adjectival pluralizer, it does not alternate with the preposed free form ovonas we find with nouns.

We therefore find examples such as pot

con>pot

congo ~ ovnpot

congo 'short', orog> orogo ~ ovnorogo 'big', nmah>

nmahgo ~ ovnmahgo 'big'.

(ii) Derived Adjectives

Plurality with any of the derived adjectives is marked exclusively by means of the prefix ovn-. Thus:

ov-nautugo ovn-itr-aco

PL-knife PL-ADJ-BR: sharp

'sharp knives'

Such adjectives do not accept the suffix -go, either on its own, or in conjunction with ovn-. Thus, the examplejust presented cannot appear as:

*ov-nautugo ovn-itr-aco-go

PL-knife PL-ADJ-BR: sharp-PL

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Erromangan Adjectives