apu kiwi kutumo
|
`many good fathers’ |
| akì
kiwi kutumo |
`many good houses’ |
| hatoliye
ekili nuno azukiwiú |
`Hatoli’
is more beautiful than Ekili’ etc. |
|
|
Colour
adjectives.- The colour adjectives form a sub-group of
adjectives proper which on the semantic axis refers to the different colours
of the noun head. The colour adjectives differ from the qualitative and
quantitative adjectives in that irrespective of the type of nouns it is
in construction with, the colour adjectives are invariably pre-posed to
the noun-head whereas the other two sub-groups of adjectives are usually
post-posed to the noun-head. This sub-group also differs from the other
two sub-groups in that when a noun in the plural is in construction with
a colour adjective, the plural marker occurs with the noun-head and never
with the colour adjectives. However, like the qualitative adjectives,
this sub-group is also capable of showing the degrees of comparison as
in : |
akuhù z
|
`red
water’ |
| akuhù
axamnu |
`red
flower’ |
|
akuhù phi |
`red
cloth’ |
akuhù phiqó
|
`red
clothes’ |
akuhù ak qó
|
`red
houses’ |
awné akiqó
|
`yellow
houses’ |
akc
khosaqó
|
`black
cats’ |
akc
aawqó
|
`black
birds’ |
ekiliye hatoli nuno akc
|
`Ekili
is blacker than Hatoli etc. |
|
|
(b)
Functional adjectives |
As
mentioned earlier, in addition to the adjectives proper members of a few
other grammatical classes also occur in the slots of the adjectives proper
thus becoming the functional adjectives. The functional adjectives in
Sema belong basically to three different grammatical classes, viz., a
noun/pronoun, a numeral and a verb. A brief discussion of their domains
follows: |
(a)
A noun/pronoun : |
A
noun/pronoun in its genitive relationship can form an endocentric construction
with noun heads. Since there is no separate genitive marker in Sema, the
uninflected form of a noun/pronoun (the first and second personal pronouns
show the oblique form) is juxtaposed with the noun head. Like the colour
adjectives, the noun/pronoun in its genitive relationship is pre-posed
to the noun-head, as in : |
ipu
|
`my
father’ |
opu
|
`your
father’ |
lipu
|
`her
father’ |
anupu
|
`the
child’s father’ |
hatolipu
|
`Hatoli’s
father’ |
hatolikì
|
`Hatoli’s
house’ |
hatoli cinipu
|
`Hatoli’s
sister’ |
acpukhu
|
`dog’s
leg’ |
yekube phukhu
|
`the
leg of the table’ |
akhosa kc
|
`the
cat’s head’ etc. |
|
|
(b)
A numeral |
Both the cardinal and ordinal numerals can form construction with the
noun-head. Structurally a numeral is on par with the quantitative adjectives
in that it substitutes the quantitative adjective in a NP, i.e., a NP
could not have both a quantitative adjective and a cardinal numeral as
its constituents, and like a quantitative adjective, when a cardinal numeral
occurs in a NP, the NP would not take the plural marker, and if NP has
both the qualitative adjective and a numeral, the qualitative adjective
is pre-posed to the numeral, and in this instance also a numeral is on
par with the quantitative adjectives, as in : |
ilimì kini
|
`two
dames’ |
ilimì kiwi kutomo
|
`many
good dames’ |
ilimì kiwi kth
|
`three good dames |
ilimì atiàw
|
`the
first dame’ |
anu atàw
|
`the
first child’ |
anu akìnyú
|
`the
second child’ etc. |
|
|
(c)
The participial form of a verb |
The
participial form of a verb1 can also form an endocentric construction
with a noun head. And when it is in construction with a noun head, it
is post-posed to the noun head. Structurally, it is on par with the qualitative
adjectives, but between the two, the relationship is that of syntagmatic,
in that both a quantitative |
|
1.
The morphological construction of the participial form of a verb is discussed
at the end of the section on the verb. |
