26 R. M. W. Dixon
take case; only if there is no modifier to a noun will case attach to the noun (Palm-
er 1967). However, in Buriat, case goes onto the head word. If an adjective func-
tions as modifier, it takes no case affix; if an adjective makes up a whole NP, then it
does take case (Poppe 1960: 76).
Note, though, that the case system for adjectives may differ in size from that for
nouns. Nichols (1994: 95-9) states that in Ingush (North-east Caucasian) nouns
may select from eight cases but adjectives just from two—nominative (corres-
ponding to nominative on nouns) and oblique (corresponding to genitive, dative,
ergative, instrumental, locative, comparative, and allative on nouns). Estonian is
similar to Ingush in this feature.
6.2.3. Comparative constructionIn some languages (for example, Russian and Papantla Totonac, in Chapters 6 and
8 below, and also Finnish and Hungarian) only an adjective can occur as the par-
ameter of comparison in a comparative construction, and this serves to distin-
guish adjectives from nouns. However, in other languages nouns and adjectives
share this property and it is thus not a relevant criterion; this applies for Portu-
guese, for Sanskrit (Bhat 1994:181-2), and also for Dyirbal (Dixon 1972: 226-8).
6.2.4. Use as adverbsIn Tariana, in Mandarin Chinese, and in Buriat (Poppe 1960), only adjectives—not
nouns—also have adverbal function.
6.3. ADJECTIVES GRAMMATICALLY SIMILAR TO BOTH VERBS AND NOUNS
The last two sections have discussed languages in which adjectives have similar
grammatical possibilities to verbs, and languages in which they have similar pos-
sibilities to nouns. What is more natural than for a language to combine these fea-
tures—for an adjective to inflect like a noun when occurring in an NP, and to in-
flect like a verb when functioning as predicate head? In fact, a rather small number
of languages appear to be of this type. Three well-documented examples can be
provided.
(1) In languages from the Berber sub-group of Afroasiatic, adjectives—like other
lexemes—have triconsonantal roots, e.g. m -1 -1 'white'. An adjective will inflect
for gender and number, like a noun, when in an NP and as copula complement. It
will inflect for tense and for person and number of the subject, like a verb, when
functioning as head of an intransitive predicate. (See, for example, Aspinion 1953,
Sadiqi 1986.)
(2) In the Australian language Nunggubuyu (Heath 1984: 152), an adjective can
function as modifier in an NP; it then takes a noun class prefix and case and
number suffixes, like a noun. An adjective may also take an intransitive subject
prefix, just like a verb; it must then be functioning as an intransitive predicate. But
note that, as in many languages—see §6.1.1—an adjective has more limited mor-