11 Adjectives in North-East Ambae 273(28) ?Go=bo hasi!
2sgSP=APPRE bad
'Careful, don't be/become bad!'
I have no examples of an adjective being marked for imperative mood. The few
adjectives that can be marked for dehortative or apprehensive mood are all phys-
ical property or human propensity adjectives. No adjectives belonging to the se-
mantic types of DIMENSION, AGE, VALUE, or COLOUR can be marked for dehorta-
tive or apprehensive mood. An example of a context where a dehortative may be
acceptable with an adjective is with mate 'die, be dead'. In (29) the addressee is on
her deathbed, and her son pleads with her not to die. The woman has little control
over this process, but the speaker is using the dehortative to express his wish that
the woman not enter into that state. In (30) the speaker is warning the addressee
to be careful not to become sick. In a given situation the speaker could be advis-
ing the addressee to stay out of the cold or avoid being bitten by mosquitoes, lest
s/he become sick.
(29) Go=mese mate beno!
2sgSP=DEHOR die yet
'Don't die yet!'
(30) Go=bo sege.
2sgSP=APPRE sick
'Careful not to become sick.'
4.3. COMPARATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS
A comparative relationship is expressed in Ambae by a construction which com-
prises a stative VP with an adjective as its head, which takes a PP adjunct with dene
'from' as its head. The preposition dene can mark any of three semantic relations,
where the object has a semantic role of ablative, source, or object of comparison.
When a PP with dene as its head occurs with an unmodified active verb, it carries
its ablative, as in (31), or source, as in (32), meaning. When it occurs with an adjec-
tive, it expresses a comparative relationship, as in (33).
(31) Mo mule dene=a.
REAL gO.home ABL=3SgO
'He went home from it.'
(32) Siu, ne=rongo na leo-gi dene=eu...
CONJ 2nsgSP=hear ACC language-ASS ABL=isgO
'So, (you all) hear the word from me ...'