12 Adjectives in Semelai 305When both an adjective and verb modify an NP, the adjective precedes the ver-
bal modifier:
(64) kdmus paflaf raf-ket, gifl-gvji
[name] animal coMP-be.small iMPERF-bite
'kmus (are) small biting animals.'
(65) S3ma? gsdo, b3-jayyt, b3-misay, bs-huban
person be.old HAVE-beard HAVE-moustache HAVE-grey.hair
(a) 'an old bearded, moustached, grey-haired person
(b) 'an old person, with a beard, moustache (and) grey-hair'
8 Conclusion
Adjectives in Semelai are established as a distinct class, based on their idiosyncrat-
ic behaviour with respect to certain morphological and syntactic properties. With-
in this class, two semantic types stand out, the DIMENSION and COLOUR adjectives,
which are considered here as sub-classes of the adjective class. However, adjectives
are not considered a major word class, like noun, verb, or expressive, but a sub-
class of verbals, given their strong verb-like behaviour.
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DIFFLOTH, G. 1980. 'To taboo everything at all times', pp. 157-65 of Berkeley Linguistics Soci-
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JENNER, P. N., L. C. THOMPSON, andS. STAROSTA. 1976. Editors of Austroasiatic Studies Part I.
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KRUSPE, N. 2004. A Grammar of Semelai. Cambridge Grammatical Descriptions. Cam-
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