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Re: Languages without adjectives

From:FFlores <fflores@...>
Date:Wednesday, March 22, 2000, 2:51
Fredrik Ekman <ekman@...> wrote:


>Some time ago I read an article about languages which mentioned in passing >that some languages have no or few adjectives, using (if I understood the >article correctly) nouns and verbs(?) for the same purposes.
Draseléq uses stative verbs instead of adjectives. In predicative position, you just use them as any other verb: Gim fa. be_true.3s this 'This is true.' Dimek màss. be_green.3p trees 'Trees are green.' For attributive adjectives, you use the participles of the verb: dimel màss be_green.AP trees (AP = active participle) 'green trees' (trees being-green) There is no morphological difference between verbs and adjectives; in my dictionary, they're marked as verbs. This has the added advantage of letting you do a lot of things to verbs (various aspects and moods) which you use for adjectives too: sifarenqailots qanth PRF.NEG.CAU.be_red.MV faces 'faces that haven't become red' (CAU = causative, MV = middle voice) --Pablo Flores http://www.geocities.com/pablo-david/index.html ... I cannot combine any characters that the divine Library has not foreseen, which in some of its secret tongues do not bear some terrible meaning. No-one can articulate a syllable not filled of caresses and fears; which is not, in some one of those languages, the powerful name of a god... Jorge Luis Borges, _The Library of Babel_