1 Adjective Classes in Typological Perspective 9(6) [go:&-ma:]INTRANSITIVEPREDICATE
man-3sg:iNDiCATiVE be.large-suBjECT.MARKER
'the large one is a man
In (5) we find the usual correspondence between word class and functional slot,
with the noun 'man being head of the NP in S function and the verb 'be large' being
head of the intransitive predicate. In (6) these functions are reversed. Because of
this, Swadesh insisted that 'normal words do not fall into classes like noun, verb,
adjective, preposition, but all sorts of ideas find their expression in the same general
type of word, which is predicative or non-predicative according to its paradigmat-
ic ending.' However, when one reads a little further on in Swadesh's paper, criteria
for distinguishing between word classes are clearly described. On pp. 98-9 he sets
out seven sets of'special reference stems' such that each lexeme selects just one set
(each set includes a pronominal-like 'indirect reference stem', a 'relative stem', and an
'interrogative stem'). He then mentions that 'the seven sets of special reference stems
suggest a semantic classification of lexemes, which also has significance in the inter-
nal syntax, since different implicit derivations and other syntactic peculiarities are
limited to combinations of lexemes of given categories of meaning, some of which
correspond to these'. Of the seven classes Swadesh recognizes, four are closed ones
(Location, Time, Quantity, and Indication, i.e. demonstratives) while three are open
(Entity, Action, and State). Of the three open classes, 'entity'—including 'a consid-
erable number of stems referring to species of flora and fauna and supernatural
beings, age and other classes of people and other beings, body parts, a group of class-
es of objects according to shape, and other entities'—could be aptly labelled 'noun.
'Action—expressing 'movement and various other activities'—appears to corres-
pond to what is called 'verb' in other languages. And 'state'—expressing 'quality, con-
dition, colour, size, position, mental state or attitude, conditions of the weather, and
other notions'—is clearly to be identified as an adjective class.
In summary, although both noun and verb may function as predicate or as
predicate argument, there are still clearly criteria for recognising them as separate
clauses. (And one assumes, although Swadesh does not deal with this, that nouns
occur more frequently as predicate arguments than as predicates, while for verbs
the preference would be reversed.)
4. The adjective class
I here put forward the idea that, just as all languages have distinguishable classes
of noun and verb, so all languages have a distinguishable adjective class. However,
the adjective class differs from noun and verb classes in varying ways in different
languages, which can make it a more difficult class to recognize, and a more diffi-
cult class to put forward generalizations about.
First, as mentioned above, whereas noun and verb classes are almost always
large and open, the adjective class shows considerable variation in size. Many