Adjective Classes - A Cross-Linguistic Typology

11 Adjectives in North-East Ambae 277

in SVCs and they all seem to be members of the semantic types DIMENSION, VALUE,
as in (42), PHYSICAL PROPERTY, as in (41), and SIMILARITY, as in (40). However, cer-
tainly not all adjectives of these semantic types can occur in SVCs.

(40). .. go=mo teve=a m=ru mo tatarese...
2sgSP=REAL cut=3sgO 3nsgSP=dl REAL same
'... cut them the same (length)...'

(41) Ne=mese dige siaga.
2nsgSP=DEHOR walk hard
'Don't walk hard.'

Sentence (42) is the only natural example that I have of two adjectives being serial-
ized in an ambient SVC. I have insufficient data to state with certainty, but I believe
that only the value adjectives hasi 'bad' or garea good' could occur as the second
adjective in an ambient SVC where the first verb is also an adjective.

(42) Mata-na ngire ngaha, mwere vo m=u memea hasi ngaha.
eye-3sgP 3nsg DEM like if 3nsgSP=TEL red bad DEM
"Those eyes of his, like they were badly red.'

4.7. REDUPLICATION

As in most Oceanic languages, reduplication is a widespread process with a variety
of different functions. As can be seen from Table 5, reduplication of verbs is a lot
more common than of either nouns or adjectives in Ambae. There are a lot of pro-
ductive functions of reduplication, particularly for transitive verbs.
Reduplication can mark intensity for active verbs, as in (43), and also for adjec-
tives, whether they are functioning predicatively as in (44) or attributively as in
(45). The other function that reduplication has for adjectives is to mark complete
effect as in (46).

TABLE 5. Functions of reduplication according to word class

Function Active verb Adjective Noun

Unspecified object deletion

Reciprocal

Repetitive action

Habitual

Intensity

Complete effect

Plurality

Nominalization

noun — > active intr. verb

trans, verb — > modifier

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