Re: Languages without adjectives

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_