Re: adj.

> From: taliesin the storyteller
>
> * Mario Bonassin <zebuleon@...> [001001 04:24]:
> > I have a question about adjectives that one among you may have the
> > answer to.  I was planing on having all adj. be form the verb class.  I
> > know that they should conjugate like verbs but should I have an extra
> > affix to show its an adj. and what about adverbs should they work the
> > same way.  This is one area that is causing me the most trouble is a
> > concept that is hard for me to grasp. But I like it. So any advice would
> > be appreciated
>
> Since nobody's mentioned it yet... you can have a closed class
> of adjectives. An example of a closed class is pronouns in
> most languages, there's a fixed number of them. (Of course I
> can't remember the details on the excellent article on word
> classes/parts of speech I read in Ling 101... I'll get back to
> you on that). In short, you can have a handful of adjectives
> (light/dark, big/small, bad/good are usual ones but there are
> a few more) that for instance are affixed to the word, and in
> addition words of a different, open class that also has the
> meaning of adjectives. For some reason, French comes to mind:
> most adjectives are placed after the noun, but a few, like
> belle/beau, grande/grand etc. may be in front of the noun. (NB
> this is not a proper example but since I can't the remember the
> reference...)

An early version of amman iar featured a closed class of adjectives, but I
abandoned this feature a couple of years ago as it just didn't seem to fit
the rest of the language, although some derivational inflections (-is,
diminutive; -ron, augmentative; -il, favorable; -ul, unfavorable, etc.)
remain as remnants.  I recall reading somewhere that languages with a closed
adjective class always express age (old, new...), dimension (large,
small...), value (good, bad...) and color (black, white..) at a minimum
within this class.

David