Re: Adjectives as Verbs

Chris Bates wrote:
>If anyone has any I'd really like examples from as many different
>languages as possible which have verbs fulfilling the role of adjectives
>on how it works, how they do comparitives/superlatives, how they make
>the verb relative (are there any which use a relative pronoun? Or do
>they all inflect the verb to mark it as relative? etc). Thanks in Advance,
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In Ithkuil, 'The book is red' would morphologically translate to a
construction meaning The book "reds"' where "reds" would be the semantic
stem for 'red' conjugated into the DESCRIPTIVE conflation conveying the
idea of 'X manifests the quality of redness' or 'X is describable by the
concept of red(ness)'.

As to the equivalent to comparatives/superlatives, Ithkuil has a category
called Level applied to the verb which essentially conveys the following
meanings (illustrated using English quasi-metaphorical prefixes):
1) EQUATIVE:   X "equi-reds" Y   =   X is as red as Y
2) SURPASSIVE: X "out-reds" Y    =   X is redder than Y
3) DEFFICIENT: X "under-reds" Y  =   X is less red than Y

As for relativization, Ithkuil handles clause- or sentence-embedding of
all sorts in one single manner:  via "case-frames" in which the
clause/sentence to be imbedded is treated as equivalent to a single noun,
marked with an appropriate noun case, and inserted into the sentence where
semantically/syntactically appropriate.  For more details on Conflation,
Level, and Case-frames and examples of usage, see Sections 5.4.1, 5.6, and
5.7 of the online Ithkuil grammar.

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