Re: Lahabic Syntax

> -----Original Message-----
> From: H. S. Teoh [mailto:hsteoh@quickfur.yi.org]
> Sent: Monday, October 02, 2000 3:34 PM
> To: The Gray Wizard
> Subject: Re: Lahabic Syntax
>
>
> On Sun, Oct 01, 2000 at 06:48:57AM -0400, The Gray Wizard wrote:
> [snip]
> > > What's a predicate adjective? :-P
> >
> > An adjective that occurs in a post-verbal or predicative position. 'The
> > wizard is gray' as opposed to within a NP or attributive
> position. 'The gray
> > wizard'
> [snip]
>
> Hmm. My conlang is a bit blurry about the distinction between attributive
> and predicative adjectives. Is it usual for natlangs to distinguish it, or
> do many natlangs not make this distinction grammatically?

What is "usual" is a difficult concept when it comes to adjectives.  Many
languages have no distinct category of adjectives at all, but express the
properties of a noun using either nouns or verbs.  Many of these, however,
do make this distinction in that they tend to use verbs when used
predicatively and nouns when used attributively.

ASMCL, amman iar predicate adjectives are indeed very verb-like in that they
may take all of the inflections of an auxiliary including polarity, tense,
aspect and mood.  When used attributively, these inflections are not
allowed.  amman iar attributive adjectives do not take nominal inflections,
however, but many languages require adjective agreement for attributive
adjectives making them indeed very noun-like.

David