15 What can we conclude? 351bifurcation: Russian has a major distinction between noun-like long forms and
verb-like short forms. These are for the most part closely intertwined as historic-
ally and lexically related, but show significant differences in behaviour. Tarianas
small adjective class is unusual in that most members can exhibit both noun-like
and verb-like behaviour by appearing in either copula complements or in verbal
predicates, as discussed in Chapters i and 4. Two languages, Japanese and Man-
ange, are recognized as having multiple independent adjective classes. In the case
of the former, there is a verb-like inflected adjective class and a noun-like unin-
flected class. Manange has, alongside what Genetti and Hildebrandt in Chapter 3
label a simple adjective class (which Dixon suggests could be labelled noun-like in
Chapter i), an additional verb-like adjective class.
Korean has an independent verb-like adjective class. Although Korean adjec-
tives pattern closely with verbs in both predicative and attributive functions, Sohn
is able to provide a highly detailed list of differences between the two classes (see
Table i in Chapter 9). With respect to the remainder (North-East Ambae, Lao,
Qiang, Semelai, Wolof), the authors claim that adjectives in these languages are
members of the verb class, notwithstanding any evidence that might allow for
adjectives and verbs to be distinguished. A number of authors (e.g. Hyslop for
North-East Ambae, LaPolla and Huang for Qiang, and Enfield for Lao) are more
explicit and further categorize adjectives in their languages as stative verbs or, less
commonly, as an adjectival sub-class of stative verbs. The behaviour of adjectives
across these languages does not appear to be equally verb-like. Adjectives seem to
be most verb-like in Wolof with relatively few identifying criteria to distinguish
them. Adjectives share all basic verb properties in Lao, and are extremely verb-
like, but Enfield, in Chapter 14, is also able to identify a small number of properties
unique to adjectives, such as the comparative and so-called Type A reduplication
with approximative effect.
In no language described in this volume are adjectives assigned exclusively to
the noun class, although a strong tendency to noun-like behaviour is noted for
some languages, e.g. Jarawara (where adjectives more accurately pattern with pos-
sessed nouns) and Japanese (uninflected adjectives only). Previous descriptions of
Papantla Totonac have suggested adjectives in that language are members of the
noun class, but Levy, in Chapter 6, argues with substantial evidence that adjectives
form an independent class.
4 Intransitive predicate vs. copula (and verbless clauses)
Languages described in the volume appear to be about evenly split with regard to
whether adjectives appear in intransitive predicates or as copula complements (or
as verbless clause complements when copulas are absent). The distinction is used
by all authors as the primary criterion in establishing word classes, but is not ap-
plied in the same fashion with respect to the classification of adjectives. In all cases
predicative function is taken to be evidence of strongly verb-like behaviour, and