5 Adjectives in Mam 137(58) Ya saabe puur kyiw-0 weena.
now you.know very hard-I>3sg very
'It's very hard.'
(59) Puur kyee'yex yiin t-oo'
very excellent ATT EXiST-Bipl
'We are quite well.'
Yiin and weena can also be used adverbially:
(60) Maa'-tzan 0-poon yiin.
recent-well I>3sg-arrive.there a.little
'It arrived a little.'
(61) T-jon-aal-x xaar n-0-loqa-n weena.
A3sg-one-ABST N-onlyjug pROG-B3sg-boil-AP a.lot
'His jug was boiling a lot all by itself.'
Adjectives can be used anaphorically without a noun in the NP. In the following
sentence the two adjectives in the second clause refer back to the cave entrance,
without repeating the noun.
(62) O q-il-a at-0 kab' t-zi t-ooky
PAST Aipl-see-ipl EXCL EXiST-I>3sg two A3sg-entrance A3sg-hole
t-jaa-jal,
A3sg-house-CLAS
'We saw that there were two cave entrances,
juun ni nuxh yiin b'ix juun matiij yiin.
one DIM small ATT and one big ATT
one somewhat small and one somewhat big.'
The following example shows that an adjective can be the only element in an NP,
where it has a pronominal function.
(63) Kuxi' n-0-jaaw nimaal.
every.moment pROG-I>3sg-go.up great
'At every moment it was bursting (referring to a previously mentioned
hose).'
Adjectives are negated as statives, with the negative particle that negates any stat-
ive or noun, miyaa. It precedes the adjective. All other types of constituents are
negated by other particles. Locative and existential predicates take mi'aal or miti'l
nti', and verbs are negated with miti'/nti' or mii'n.
(64) (a) matiij-0 'it's big' (b) miyaa' matiij-0 'it's not big'
big-Bssg NEC big-Bssg