The mechanism
involved in getting the superlative degree is to prepose the
indefinite pronoun sob ‘all’ to the comparative particle and the two
together in their turn are preposed to the quality compared. When the
noun/pronoun which is compared to some other noun/pronoun, forms part
of the predicate, it is in the accusative, as in :
|
citra klaste sob
kori donia suali
‘Chitra is the most beautiful girl in the class’
|
heytu gor sob
kori da or
‘that is the biggest house of all
the houses’
|
moy citrak sob
kori bal lage
‘I like Chitra more than any one else’
|
Demostratives:
|
A demonstrative
was defined (vide 3.1) as that sub-class of adjectives which on the
syntagmatic axis, can function as a satellite in a NP but if a NP has
both an adjective including an adjective phrase and a demonstrative,
the demonstrative would be preposed to the adjective/adjective phrase,
as in :
|
otu suali
‘that girl’
itu suali ‘this girl’
|
| In this, the
distribution of itu/otu parallels that of ‘this/that’ in English. |
These two
demostratives can be segmented as :
|
i+tu and o+tu
|
Wherein i- and
o- can be identified as the particles respectively of nearness and
distance. -tu being the definite particle, itu/otu would literally
mean ‘that/this particular’. Both these forms do not show any
opposition in number, i.e., the same form occurs with the nouns in the
singular and in the plural, as in :
|
itu suali
‘this girl’
itu sualikhan ‘these girls’
otu suali ‘that girl’
otu sualikhan ‘those girls’, etc.
|
Incidentally,
the proximate demonstrative itu ‘this’ is identical in shape with the
third person non-human pronoun. The two forms, however, belong to two
different grammatical classes, because of their structural
differences. These are stated below:
|
|
(i)
|
Depending upon
the size of the object to which a pronoun refers to, the non-human
third person pronoun has two forms, whereas the demonstrative has a
single form for modifying all the objects, as in :
|
| (a) guru
ekta jayse |
‘a cow
went’ |
|
heytu jayse |
‘it went’ |
|
bili ekta jayse |
‘a cat
went’ |
|
itu jayse |
‘it went’,
etc. |
| |
|
| (b) otu/itu
guru jayse |
‘that/this
cow went’ |
|
otu/itu bili jayse |
‘that/this
cat went’, etc. |
|
(ii)
|
Whereas the
pronouns are noun substitutes and occur in noun slots, the
demonstratives are satellites of noun heads in a NP and occur in the
slote of an adjective. These two forms, therefore, has to be treated
as homophonous forms. |
Adverbs :
|
An adverb in
this language was formally defined (vide 3.1) as an invariable
belonging to that grammatical class which on the syntagmatic axis can
function as a member of an adverb phrase and/or be a satellite of a
verb phrase but not of any other phrase, as in :
|
lahe jayse
‘went slowly’
etom lahe jayse ‘went very slowly’
|
In addition to
the invariable adjectives, nouns/pronouns followed by case
suffixes/postpositions could also occur in the slots of the adverbs.
Therefore such adverbs are designated as functional adverbs.
|
Sub-grouping:
|
The first
sub-grouping of the adverbs would be that of adverbs proper and
functional adverbs. While the adverbs proper are invariables, the
postpositional phrases consisting of a noun+a postposition or a case
suffix1 that occur in the adverbial slot are
functional adverbs, as in :
|
lahe jayse
‘went slowly’ (adv. proper)
gor pora jayse ‘went from the house’ (functional adv.)
gorot jayse ‘went to the house’,
(functional adv.)
etc.
|
1In
this language, this is applicable only to nouns/pronouns showing case
relations of location viz., locative, allative and ablative cases.
|
