Adjective Classes - A Cross-Linguistic Typology

11 Adjectives in North-East Ambae 269

formed to express such qualities of the head noun as sex, as in (11), or material
which an object is made from as shown in (12).

(11) Mo baba na maresu mwera.
REAL give.birth ACC child male
'She gave birth to a baby boy.'

(12) Mo gagaliu na am vatu.
REAL jump ACC fence stone
'He jumped over the stone fence.'

4.2. MOOD AND ASPECT MARKING IN STATIVE CLAUSES

While adjectives can behave fully as verbs, as the head of an intransitive VP, there
are differences in their occurrence with some verbal markers when they occur as
the head of a VP, which is further evidence for distinguishing this sub-class from
other classes of verbs. In Ambae the set of verbal particles used to mark aspect,
mood, and polarity in VPs is quite small. It is useful to list all these forms, before
discussing which particles share the same function when marking both stative and
active predicates, and which have variable functions.
As can be seen from Table 2, the function of the negative particles and most
aspect particles is the same for both active intransitive verbs and adjectives (§5).

TABLE 2. Verbal particles

mo

ni
u
0
bo
mese/vese
mas

bei

beno
taul teu
radu

hi
tea

realis mood particle

irrealis mood particle

telic aspect particle

imperative mood

apprehensive mood particle

dehortative mood particle

'must'* (hortative mood particle —

occurs with irrealis)

'just, for the first time' (aspect

particle)

'already' (aspect particle)

'still, yet' (aspect particle)

'still, forever' ongoing, continuous

event (aspect particle)

pre-verbal negative particle

post- verbal negative particle

Head of VP

active verb

realis

irrealis

telic

imperative

adjective

process (past or

present)

process (future)

state

marked construction

apprehensive marked construction

dehortative marked construction

same

same

same

same

same

same

same

• This is clearly a borrowing from English via Bislama. Previously there was no mood particle specify-
  ing obligation.