Adjective Classes - A Cross-Linguistic Typology
4 R.M.W. Dixon
- VALUE—good', 'bad', 'lovely', 'atrocious', 'perfect', 'proper(/real)', etc. (And
also words such as 'odd', 'strange', curious', 'necessary', 'crucial', 'important',
'lucky'.)
- COLOUR—'black', 'white', 'red', etc.
(b) A number of peripheral semantic types are typically associated with medium-
sized and large adjective classes.
- PHYSICAL PROPERTY—'hard', 'soft', 'heavy', 'wet', 'rough', 'strong', 'clean, 'hot',
'sour', etc. And a sub-class referring to corporeal properties, e.g. 'well', sick',
'tired', 'dead', 'absent'.
- HUMAN PROPENSITY—'jealous', 'happy', 'kind', clever', generous', 'cruel',
'proud', 'ashamed', 'eager', etc.
- SPEED—'fast', 'quick', 'slow', etc.
In 'Where have all the adjectives gone?' (19773, revised 1982), I illustrated small ad-
jective classes such as that in Igbo, which consists of an antonymic pair from each
of the four core semantic types (Welmers and Welmers 1968,1969; Welmers 1973):
DIMENSION ukwu 'large' nta 'small'
AGE (jhuri} 'new' ocye 'old'
VALUE (jma good' 9J99 'bad'
COLOUR ojii 'black, dark' (jca 'white, light'
A slightly larger class (say, 12-20 members) is likely to include more words from
the four core types (for example, 'long', 'short', 'red') and also some physical property
items (for example, 'raw, green, unripe', 'heavy', 'light', 'sharp', 'hot'). Only when an ad-
jective class is much bigger (with at least a few score members) is it likely to include
terms referring to human propensities (for example, 'happy', 'jealous', 'clever').
Not every small adjective class is as symmetrical as that in Igbo. Indeed, the
main members of a semantic type may belong to different word classes. In Yoruba,
for instance, there are three adjectives with a meaning similar to good' but only a
verb 'be bad' (Madugu 1976). In Jarawara there is an adjective 'bad' but only a verb
'be good'. (Each of these languages has a small class of about fifteen adjectives.)
It is interesting to enquire how, in languages with just a small adjective class, the
other typical adjectival concepts are coded. The following tendencies have been
noted:
(a) PHYSICAL PROPERTY terms, if not in the adjective class, are generally in the
verb class;
(b) HUMAN PROPENSITY terms, if not in the adjective class, may be in either the
noun class or the verb class;
(c) SPEED terms tend to be in the adjective class if PHYSICAL PROPERTY terms are
in this class, and in the adverb class if PHYSICAL PROPERTY terms are in the
verb class.
In languages with large adjective classes there maybe differences of various kinds
