Re: Adjective verb compounding

"Mark J. Reed" wrote:
> I'm curious, though; what natlangs have verbal adjectives?  You mentioned
> adjective tenses in Japanese?
Some adjectives are considered verbs in Japanese, tho with their own set
of endings.  For example:

Ano  otoko wa  ureshi-i
That man   top happy -present
That man is happy

Ano  otoko wa  hanas-u
That man   top speak-present
That man speaks/is speaking

Ano  ureshi-i       otoko ga  mie-ru
That happy -present man   nom be.visible-present
(I) see that happy man/ (I) see that man who is happy

Ano  otoko wa  ureshi-katta
That man   top happy -past
That man was happy

Ano ureshikatta otoko ga mieru
(I) see that man who was happy

Ano otoko wa hanash-ita
That man spoke/has spoken

Ano  otoko wa  ureshi-kunai
That man   top happy -negative.present
That man is not happy

Ano  otoko wa  hanas-ana-i
That man   top speak-neg-present.adj.
That man does not speak/is not speaking
(Note that the negative form of a verb is actually an adjective)

However, there are some restrictions to what inflections adjectives can
take, for example

Ano  otoko wa  hanash-ita-i
That man   top speak -want-adj.present
That man wants to speak (again, another verb form that's an adjective)

*Ano  otoko wa  taka-kutai
 That man   top tall-want
That man wants to be tall

Instead you have to say:

Ano  otoko wa  taka-ku  nar   -itai
That man   top tall-adv become-want
That man wants to be tall (lit. "That man wants to become tall")

However, not all adjectives are inflected this way.  Some are
uninflected, and marked with _na_ when used attributively:

Ano  chibi na koneko
That small na kitten
That small kitten

Ano  koneko wa  chibi da
That kitten top small is
That kitten is small

"Na" is often described as a form of "da", "to be", when used
attributively.

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