258 Fiona Me Laughlin(65) Maa la gen serin
isg 3plO v:surpass marabout
'I have a better marabout than you'
*Maa la gena serin
(66) Ibu moo gena nay Aamadu
Ibou 3sg v:surpass ADj:miserly Amadou
'Ibou is more miserly than Amadou'
(67) Maa la gena ligeey
isg iplO v:surpass v:work
'I work more than you do'
There are also a few verbs that are inherently comparative, such as sut 'to be taller/
more competent than' and daq 'to be prettier/better at than':
(68) Aamadu moo sut Ibu
Amadou 3sg taller Ibou
'Amadou is taller than Ibou'4.4. ADVERBS, ADVERBIAL PHRASES, AND COMPOUNDS
There are few true adverbs in Wolof, but several ways to express adverbial mean-
ing. The adverb lool is a general intensifier meaning 'very', and is most often used
with adjectives, as in (66). The loanword, torop, from French trap 'too much',^9 is
widely used as an adverb that also means 'very' and can be used more or less inter-
changeably with lool:
(69) An hi neex na lool/torop
lunch DBF ADj:nice 3s:PERF very
"The lunch is delicious'
Although they cannot be considered true adverbs, the coverbal ideophones dis-
cussed briefly in §4.1 have something akin to an adverbial function since they de-
note intensity. The following utterance illustrates an ideophone being used in con-
junction with torop 'very' to emphasize the intensity of the cold.
(70) Fii dafa sedd guyy, torop sax
LOG 3sg:vpoc ADj:cold IDEO, very even
'Here it's terribly cold'
Other adverbial expressions include ba dee, literally 'to (the point of) dying' but
which also means 'very' or terribly', as in (71) with adjectives and (72) with a non-
adjectival verb.(^9) In Wolof, the concept of too much is expressed by the verb epp (see previous note) as in Ceeb hi
epp na (rice DEF more 3sg:PERp) "There is too much rice'.