274 Catriona Hyslop(33) Mwere, vanua-ra, bataha u garea u garea u garea^4 dene no.
like land-3nsgP I.reckon TEL good TEL good TEL good SOURCE ACC
vanua-da.
land-insg.inP
'Like, I reckon their land is much, much better than ours.'
In order for a comparative relationship to be expressed with an active verb, the
verb must be modified by an adjective. Thus in sentences (34) and (35), the head
of the VP is the verb toa 'run', but the preposition in (34) has an ablative reading,
whereas the preposition in (35) marks a comparative relationship. If the verb is un-
modified as in (34), dene 'from' indicates motion away. When the verb is modified
by an adjective as in (35), this expresses a comparative relationship. In this case, it
is not the action of the active verb that is the parameter of comparison, but rather
the manner in which the action was carried out, as expressed by the modification
of the active verb with an adjective.
(34) Gu toa dene=eu.
2SgSP:TEL run ABL=lSgO
'You ran from me.'
(35) Niko gu toa siaga dene=eu ngie go=hi toa tea siaga
isg 2sgSP:TEL run hard souRCE=isgO but 2sgSP=NEG run NEC hard
dene Danuta.
SOURCE Danuta
'You ran faster than me, but you didn't run faster than Danuta.'4.4. NOMINALIZATION
There are two nominalizing suffixes in Ambae. The suffix -ana is not productive
and it has been observed on only nine roots, six of them active verbs and three of
them adjectives. The meaning of the derivations is not entirely predictable. The ad-
jectives which can be nominalized with -ana are:
garea 'good' —» gareana goodness'
mate 'dead' —» mateana 'death, black magic'
mwaso 'alive' —» mwasoana 'life'Examples of verbs nominalized with -ana are:
tabe 'love, respect' —» tabeana gift'
domi 'think' —» domiana 'thought'
bulu 'join' —» buluana 'friend'
The suffix -gi however is a productive nominalizer which only derives nouns from
adjectives, not active verbs. The derived nominalization has the meaning, 'the one(^4) Repetition is a common device in Ambae used with verbs and adjectives alike to express em-
phasis.