10 Is there an Adjective Class in Wolof? 251phrase, as in (39) and (40), or it may constitute a noun phrase itself, as in (41).
(39) ndox mu sedd mi
water REL ADj:cold DBF
'the cold water'
(40) nag wu nuul wi
COW REL ADJ:black DBF
"The black cow'
(41) Ku xees ki laa-y wut
REL ADj:light-skinned DBF isg:OFOC-iMP v:lookfor
'I am looking for the light-skinned person
In relative clauses involving non-adjectival verbs, the relativizer and the definite
article occur together as a single word, a definite relativizer.^4 Examples are given
in (42) and (43).
(42) xale hi dem-oon Ndakaaru
child REL:DEF v:go-PAST Dakar
'the child who went to Dakar'
(43) goorgi xam
man REL:DEF v:know
'the man who knows'
The clauses in (39)-(43) have no aspectual marking, hence they are perfective by
default. Examples of definite relative clauses that are imperfective are given in
(44)-(46). The imperfective marker di or its allomorph JK immediately precede the
verb, y occurs only as a clitic to the preceding word, and may appear in conjunc-
tion with the definite article-cum-relativizer as in (44) and (45).
(44) pice mi-y way
bird REL:DEF-IMP v:sing
'the bird that is singing'
(45) ki-y bey dugub
3SREL:DEF-IMP v:cultivate millet
'the one who cultivates millet'
As illustrated by the ungrammatical clause in (46), adjectives in such construc-
tions do not occur in imperfective form, even though they may occur elsewhere as
imperfectives with a habitual meaning, as in (14) in §2.2.
(46) *ku-y sonn ki
3SREL-IMP ADj:tired DBF
'the one who is (habitually) tired'
(^4) Dunigan (1994) considers what I am calling a definite relativizer to be simply the definite article.