Adjectives. A distinctive feature of Bantu languages is the lack of pure adjectives in the languages (Xxxx, 1982; Creissels et al, 2008). Xxxxxx (1955) points out that there are only ten true adjectival stems in Gitonga. These are presented in TABLE 6. TABLE 6: ADJECTIVE STEMS Stem Gloss -pya ‘new, fresh’ -duguana ‘small’ -koŋɡoro ‘big, great’ -nji ‘many’ -ngani ‘how many/how much?’ -mbihu ‘raw’ -mbe ‘another’ -viri ‘two’ -raro ‘three’ -na ‘four’ In an adjectival phrase, the ten adjective stems take the prefix that corresponds to the noun class of the head noun. The position of the adjective in the phrase is after the head noun, as in (15-16).
Adjectives. Adjectives also show gender and number distinctions. Gender splits between feminine and mas- culine. The most frequent ending for feminine adjectives is ‘-a’ and for masculine we find ‘-u’, ‘-a´n’ or ‘-´ın’, even though this list is not exhaustive. Number then differentiates between singular and plural. Masculine and feminine genders and number in adjectives are always an expression of agreement with the gender and number of the noun they modify.
Adjectives. Adjectives are stems that are preceded by a NPx which agrees in class with the noun it specifies. The adjectives of Chinnima are listed below with their TG’s and their TP’s with penultimate lengthening and with penultimate shortening.
Adjectives. Adjectives have two forms in Mosetén, from now on called ‘long’ and ‘short’ forms. While the short forms might be used as adjectives or adverbs, the long forms are strictly adjectival forms. The long form consist of the short form plus the gender marker -tyi’ (M) and -si’ (F). Thus, adjectives in the long form agree in gender with their antecedent, while adjectives in the short form have no marking for gender. In the following table, I summarise the use of the long and the short adjectival forms in Mosetén: short from long form Adverb yes no Adjective used predicatively yes yes Adjective used attributively no yes Table 1: the long and the short adjectival forms in Mosetén The long adjectival form appears with adjectives used predicatively and attributively, while the short form, apart from some exceptions (see below), is only used with ad- jectives in predicative position. The adjective marking is similar to the marking in Russian, which also has a long and a short adjectival form (Xxxx 1992) with the same formal distribution as in Mosetén. As in Russian, in Mosetén the distribution of long and short forms of the predicatively used adjective depends on various semantic factors. The following ex- amples show the attributive use of adjectives, where the adjective is usually marked by the gender marker:
Adjectives. Adjectives in this series are mostly non-human adjectives. There are 49 human adjectives. In general, there are more women adjectives than men adjectives; there are 28 women adjectives and 21 men adjectives, which means 58% of adjectives are women adjectives, and 42% of adjectives are men adjectives. In Backpack1, there are only 2 women adjectives and 2 men adjectives. These adjectives are exactly Ed and the scary beast for men, and Xxxxx backwards and the beautiful lady for women. Most of adjectives are in Backpack2; there are 22 women adjectives and 15 men adjectives. Women adjectives are much taller than a boy, older than a girl (2 times), smarter than a girl, slow, young, tall, taller than a girl (2 times), good player, stronger than a girl, very friendly, nice, better at maths than a girl, best friend, younger than a boy, angry, impatient, excited, young lady, little sister, and baby sister. Men adjectives are taller than other boys, little shorter than a girl, stronger than a girl, faster than a girl, short, old, angry, excited, good son, little brother, younger brother, older brother, new boy, little brother, and best domino expert. Backpack3 has 4 men adjectives and 5 women adjectives. Women adjectives are taller than a boy, curly-haired, tall, Crazy Daisy, and friendly. Men adjectives are stronger, the oldest, shorter than a girl, and German boy.
