Adjectives

Table of Contents
  1. Introduction
  2. Basic Adjectives
  3. Augmented Adjectives
  4. Diminished Adjectives
  5. Reduplicated Adjectives
  6. Derived Adjectives
  7. List of Adjectives

Introduction

Adjectives in sodemadu can modify nouns and verbs. They do not inflect. They express dimension and size, age, value, color, and physical properties such as speed, shape, temperature, and texture. They can also express time and distance and manner of movement. Adjectives in the dictionary are tagged as "base" for basic adjectives, "aug" for augmented adjectives, "dim" for diminished adjectives, and "redup" for reduplicated adjectives. The most common are basic adjectives.

Adjectives follow the nouns they modify. Adjectives that act like adverbs in modifying the verb or the whole clause appear at the end of the sentence before the mood marker (if realized).

Basic Adjectives

Basic adjectives can take the full range of adjective modifiers (except no). These include go "as, same as", dan "sort of, kind of", pe "less, little", piye "too little, least, not enough", alam "too, too much", na "more, very", iyɛ "getting more so", and iyɛ iyɛ "getting even more so, more and more". The last two are often used with the iterative forms of the verbs evi and ɛmɛmɛ. With the latter verb, they actually mean "getting less so" and "getting even less so, less and less".

Some examples:

Gada daɬo taba.

gada
subject
water
daɬo
verb
taba
adjective
deep

The water is deep.

Gada daɬo taba go.

gada
subject
water
daɬo
verb
taba
adjective
deep
go
modifier
as

The water is as deep (as over there).

The next five modifiers form a scale, from least to most: piye - pe - dan - na - alam:

Gada daɬo taba piye.

gada
subject
water
daɬo
verb
taba
adjective
deep
piye
modifier
too little/not enough

The water is not deep enough.

Gada daɬo taba pe.

gada
subject
water
daɬo
verb
taba
adjective
deep
pe
modifier
a little

The water is a little deep.

Gada daɬo taba dan.

gada
subject
water
daɬo
verb
taba
adjective
deep
dan
modifier
sort of

The water is sort of deep.

Gada daɬo taba na.

gada
subject
water
daɬo
verb
taba
adjective
deep
na
modifier
more, very

The water is very deep.

Gada daɬo taba alam.

gada
subject
water
daɬo
verb
taba
adjective
deep
alam
modifier
too

The water is too deep.

iyɛ and iyɛ iyɛ are used to mean "more so" and "more and more so". So, for a verb like ɛmɛmɛ, which denotes implosion and dimunition, "less so" and "less and less so" are more accurate translations.

Gada ŋevena taba iyɛ.

gada
subject
water
ŋevena
verb
↖↗
taba
adjective
deep
iyɛ
modifier
more

The water is getting deeper.

Gada ŋɛmmena taba iyɛ iyɛ.

gada
subject
water
ŋɛmmena
verb
↘↙
taba
adjective
deep
iyɛ iyɛ
modifier
less and less

The water is getting less and less deep.

Augmented Adjectives

Augmented adjectives are adjectives meaning "more" or "very" of a quality. There are two patterns to augmentative adjectives. The first involves reduplication of the first syllable of the adjective, as in taba becoming tataba. The second involves adding the suffix -(e)ya, as in tanda becoming tandeya. Neither pattern is productive, though the second was productive more recently, and some speakers will still apply the process to newer adjectives.

The following adjectives are of the first, partially reduplicated type:

babas
very bad, worse
gagala
very early, very soon
gege
better, very good
ɨdɨde
very late
ɨsɨsa
very small, very little
ibibi
very short, very little, very small
kɛkɛgɛ
very light in weight
liliha
completely filled, full; finished, completely done process
onona
very big, very large
sasata
very thick
tataba
very low, very deep
tɛtɛta
very old
tutumu
very heavy

Note that taba na "very deep" from the previous section and tataba "very deep" are equivalent.

Augmented adjectives can take the following modifiers: dan "sort of, kind of", no "more, very", and iyɛ "more and more".

Gada daɬo tataba dan.

gada
subject
water
daɬo
verb
tataba
adjective
very deep
dan
modifier
sort of

The water is sort of very deep.

Gada daɬo tataba no.

gada
subject
water
daɬo
verb
tataba
adjective
very deep
no
modifier
more, very

The water is very very deep.

Gada ŋevena tandeya iyɛ.

gada
subject
water
ŋevena
verb
↖↗
tandeya
adjective
faster
iyɛ
modifier
more

The water is getting faster and faster.

There are some augmented adjectives that do not have a corresponding basic form. Among these are mɨdeya "careful, cautious", nadeya "important", and podeya "ugly, disgusting".

Diminished Adjectives

Diminished adjectives mean "not very" of a quality and often come to have idiosyncratic meanings or to mean the opposite of the quality. There are only a small number of diminished adjectives. They were formed by adding the suffix -(i)si to the basic adjective, often accompanied by a change in the base vowel. This process is no longer productive, and some of the forms have lost their connection to the basic adjective.

There are fifteen diminished adjectives, thirteen are from the same base forms as the thirteen partially-reduplicated augmented adjectives above, plus two more.

bɛssi
not quite bad, not as bad as it seems
gɛssi
delayed
gisi
not very good, crudely made, roughly drafted; misrepresented as good but turning out not to be
gossi
not very long time
ɨdisi
not very late, earlier or sooner than expected
ɨssi
not very small, regular-sized
ibisi
not very short, not very little, not very small
kɛksi
very light, deceptive in weight; not as easy as expected, difficult; deceptive in appearance, seemingly but not
lɨssi
not completely filled, not full; insufficient, not enough
onisi
not very big
sɛtsi
skinny
tɛpsi
not very deep, shallow
tɛtsi
not very old, mature
tumisi
not very heavy, not as heavy as expected; not very hard, easy
ussi
longer (time) than expected

Diminished adjectives can take only the following modifiers: dan "sort of, kind of", and no "more, very".

Gada daɬo tɛpsi dan.

gada
subject
water
daɬo
verb
tɛpsi
adjective
shallow
dan
modifier
sort of

The water is sort of shallow.

Gada daɬo tɛpsi no.

gada
subject
water
daɬo
verb
tɛpsi
adjective
shallow
no
modifier
more, very

The water is very shallow.

Derived Adjectives

Reduplicated Adjectives

Reduplicated adjectives involve the full reduplication of a base. They tend to convey a continuous state over time, and generally act more like adverbs. They can be modified by no "more, very" only. Some are derived from nouns, and some from other adjectives. Some exist only in a reduplicated form. Here are some reduplicated adjectives:

bɛlɛbɛlɛ
rolling, while rolling
busubusu
while pulling or dragging
deyideyi
permitted, allowed, with permission
doŋidoŋi
while looking or watching, in order to look or see or watch
gasigasi
all mixed up, every which way
goɬigoɬi
taking one's time, dilly-dallying
gunugunu
while thundering, during thunder; while making a thundering sound
hontohonto
tied or fastened to something, while tied up, in order to be tied up or fastened
kɛŋɛkɛŋɛ
askingly, wished for; marks a hoped for or wished for event or situation, used with zero evidentiality
loniloni
by day
lutulutu
panicked, while in a panic
ɬalaɬala
slipping, sliding
nolonolo
on fire
noŋinoŋi
dying
ŋakaŋaka
while pushing
siyesiye
by night, under cover of darkness
taɬataɬa
topsy-turvy, while tangled up and struggling, chaotic, confused
tandatanda
quickly, while being quick
taŋitaŋi
scarcely, barely

Deriving from Adjectives

Augmented and diminished adjectives are derived from base adjectives. However, these processes are no longer productive.

Adjectives can be turned into nouns by preceding the adjective with a noun classifier.

Deriving from Nouns

Adjectives can be derived from some nouns by adding the suffix -ili "full of, filled with".

bulili
sandy, full of sand
gadili
wet, soaked, dripping, full of water
kɨdili
stony, rocky, full of rocks
kyohili
salty; of a person, unsociable or anti-social
lɛkili
dirty, full of dirt
luhili
starry, full of stars
mɛdili
thick with trees or plants, overgrown