Derivation of adverbs 397
In (33), para' ‘almost’ occurs right before the verb ekennenga ‘caught’, which it
modifies. In (34), coma ‘only’ occurs right before the verb anyama ‘have the
name’. Degree modifiers generally occur immediately before the element they
modify, as in the examples in (31-34). The lone exception to this is gallu ‘too’
(excessively), which follows the adjective it modifies, as described in Chapter 3
section 2.1 and exemplified in (35).
(35) Kopi reya manes gallu.
coffee this sweet too
‘This coffee is too sweet.’
2. Derivation of adverbs
As the data in section 1.1 amply illustrate, a number of regular processes are at
work in the derivation of adverbial expressions.
A great many temporal expressions are simply the nouns associated with
time. The nouns associated with time of day, time periods, names of days of the
week and months, and specific dates are all nominal expressions that assume an
adverbial function. Other temporal expressions are also nominal. The chief
means of derivation is the sa-...-na structure. As illustrated in section 1.1, a
verbal, adverbial or nominal root occurs in the structure sa-...-na to denote such
relative temporal relations as ‘before’ (sabellunna) and ‘after’ (samarena) and
‘when’ (sabaktona). With some expressions sa can be dropped, so marena and
baktona are commonly used as is the underived form bakto.
Many adjectival predicates can be used in root form, especially in the case
of manner adverbials and epistemic expressions. Thus, an adjective such as
ceppet ‘fast’ can be used both as a predicate (36) and as a manner adverbial
(37).
(36) Motor-ra Ina ceppet.
car-DEF Ina fast
‘Ina’s car is fast.’
(37) Ina nyetir motor-ra ceppet.
Ina AV.drive car-DEF fast
‘Ina drives her car fast.’
Adverbial expressions are also derived through reduplication and the suf-
fix -an, which are used individually and in combination. Some of the frequency
expressions occur only as reduplicated roots, including dangkadang ‘some-
times’, poampo ‘sometimes’ and rangrang ‘seldom’. Manner adverbs such as