5. ADJECTIVES |
The adjectives are a class of words primarily identifiable by their syntatic function as attributes to the following nouns. The adjectives are either monomorphemic or complex.
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5.1. Monomorphemic Adjectives |
Monomorphemic adjectives consist of words unanalyable into constituent morphemes. Included in this class are:
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(a) Demonstrative adjectives, |
(b) Numeral adjectives and |
(c) Qualitative adjectives. |
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5.1.1. Demonstrative Adjectives |
The demosntrative adjectives are: ad ‘that’ id ‘this’, ba:ta: ‘what’ and their respective plural forms, aw, iw and ba:ra:.
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Examples: |
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ad na:r |
‘that viallage’ |
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aw na:hk |
‘those villages’ |
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id pilla: |
‘this girl’ |
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iw pilla: |
‘these girls’ |
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ba:ta: mara: |
‘which tree’ |
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ba:ra: lo:hk |
‘which houses’ |
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5.1.2. Numeral Adjectives |
In numeral there are free morphemes and bound morphemes. Free morphemes are the basic numerals which occur only with non-masculine nouns which occur only with non-masculine nouns and the bound morphemes occur before the suffix -war or -wir denoting masculine nouns.
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ondi mara: |
‘one tree’ |
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oro:-war ma:ne: |
‘one man’ |
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ren· pilla: |
‘two girls’ |
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iru-wir pe:ko:r |
‘two boys’ |
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mu:n nayk |
‘three dogs’ |
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mu:-wir pe:ko:r |
‘three boys’ |
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na:lu na:hk |
‘four villages’ |
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na:l-wir pe:ko:r |
‘four boys’ |
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hay lo:hk |
‘five houses’ |
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ay-wir pe:ko:r |
‘five boys’ |
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a:ru a:sk |
‘six women’ |
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a:r-wir ma:ne:r |
‘six men’ |
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Ordinals first, second, third, etc., are indicated by the morphemes munne:, irsa: and mucca: respectively.
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munne: pe:ki: |
‘first girl’ |
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irsa: lo:n |
‘second house’ |
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mucca: mara: |
‘third tree’ |
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