1 Adjective Classes in Typological Perspective 15some languages whose adjectives have neither of these functions, being confined
to a modifying role within an NP—see §7.
The second parameter of grammatical variation is rather different. Members of
very nearly all adjective classes—whether of type I or type II—may in some way
modify a noun within an NP. In some languages this involves just apposition of
adjective and noun, in others a relative clause (or similar) marker maybe required.
In a fair number of languages an adjective has the possibility of making up an
entire NP, without any stated noun (although a head noun may be implicit, and
ellipsed under certain discourse conditions). Adjectives can roughly be categor-
ized into two further classes in respect of their morphological possibilities when
they occur within an NP:
(A) When it functions within an NP, an adjective may take some or all of the mor-
phological processes that apply to a noun. They can be called 'noun-like ad-
jectives'.
(B) In a language where nouns show a number of morphological processes, none
of these apply to adjectives. They can be called 'non-noun-like adjectives'.
In languages with an isolating profile, there maybe no morphological processes
applying to nouns, so that the (A/B) parameter is not relevant.
There is a degree of correlation between the parameters. We find:
- A large number of languages whose adjectives are (I) verb-like, and (B) non-
noun-like. - A large number whose adjectives are (II) non-verb-like, and (A) noun-like.
- Some languages whose adjectives are both (I) verb-like and (A) noun-like.
- Some languages whose adjectives are (II) non-verb-like and (B) non-noun-like.
We can now examine, in turn, languages of type (I) and of type (A). §6.1 deals
with languages in which adjectives can fill the intransitive predicate slot and have
similar properties to verbs; it surveys the criteria which may serve to distinguish
adjectives from verbs in these languages. Then §6.2 examines languages in which
adjectives have a similar morphological and syntactic profile to nouns, surveying
criteria that can be found to distinguish the class of adjectives from the class of
nouns. After this, §6.3 discusses languages whose adjectives combine verb-like and
noun-like properties; and §6.4 looks at languages whose adjectives have grammat-
ical properties different from those of nouns or verbs.
6.1. DISTINGUISHING 'VERB-LIKE* ADJECTIVES FROM VERBS
Where both adjectives and verbs can fill the intransitive predicate slot, criteria
for distinguishing the two word classes include: (i) different possibilities within
the predicate slot; (2) different transitivity possibilities; (3) different possibilities as
modifiers within an NP; (4) different possibilities in comparative constructions;
(5) different possibilities for forming adverbs (that is, modifiers to verbs). We can
discuss these one at a time.