Adjectival Morphology

Каноҥус моорполоогиа

6.1 Očets Adjective Classes

Adjectives are words which modify nouns and provide additional information about the nouns they modify. They can describe both physical qualities (“long”, “heavy”, “white”, “young”, etc.) and abstract qualities (“smart”, “happy”, etc.).

Očets lacks a true adjective class as seen in most European languages. In its place, Očets employs both descriptive nouns and verbs in different circumstances depending on various syntactic and semantic factors. There are no true differences between adjectival nouns and other nouns or adjectival verbs and other verbs. The one feature that could be used to argue the existence of a distinct set of adjectives is their ability to easily switch between nominal and verbal forms depending on polarity.

6.2 ‘Noun-Like Adjectives’

Noun-like adjectives are modifiers that follow a nominal paradigm. They are used in two circumstances:

The following categories may be considered ‘physical’ for the purposes of determining whether a noun-like form is to be used:

However, certain adjectives denoting material (“iron”, “wood”, “plastic”, etc.), which can freely modify nouns directly (һеҕ қаут heǧ qaut “railroad” 2 ), require another case, such as the ablative, when being used with a copula: тақаута һеҕииздәди taqauta heǧiizdədi “the road is iron” 3 ). This will be explained later.

Noun-like adjectives may decline either with animate endings or with inanimate endings, depending on what they are describing. Compare, for instance, тачаита кежда tačaita kežda “the man is tall” with тока кежды toka keždy “the tree is tall”; the former has an animate predicate suffix, the latter an inanimate one.

The citation form of adjectives is always the nominative singular of the noun-like form.

6.3 ‘Verb-Like Adjectives’

Verb-like adjectives are formed by taking the same stem as seen in the nominal forms, adding a stative formant, and then conjugating them as normal verbs. This type of adjective is used in two circumstances:

The formation of these attributive verbs will be discussed later, in the section on derivational morphology.

6.4 Comparatives

Očets has three degrees of comparison: absolute, comparative, and superlative.

The absolute degree is the basic form of a nominal or verbal adjective.

The comparative degree expresses the idea of “more” relative to some other measure. It is formed with the prefix *mAn- (man-, men-) prefixed to the noun or verb serving as an adjective:

Stem Noun-Like Verb-Like
*els-
“small”
менелс
menels
“smaller [one]”
саменелсост
samenelsot
“be smaller”
*troŋ-
“deep”
манәтроҥ
manətroŋ
“deeper [one]”
саманәтроҥост
samanətroŋost
“be deeper”
*xin-
“old”
меҥхин
meŋxin
“older [one]”
самеҥхиност
sameŋxinost
“be older”
*iaat-
“hard”
маннат
mannat
“harder [one]”
саманнатост
samannatost
“be harder”
*seǧ-
“difficult”
менцеҕ
mentseǧ
“more difficult [one]”
саменцеҕост
samentseǧost
“be more difficult”

However, if the *mAn- prefix comes directly in contact with a plosive or affricate consonant at the beginning of the adjective stem, the /n/ will drop entirely and the plosive or affricate will become geminate. This does not apply when an epenthetic schwa is inserted (as with троҥ above), or when the affricate does not exist in the underlying form (as in сеҕ above).

Stem Noun-Like Verb-Like
*kos-
“warm”
маккос
makkos
“warmer [one]”
самаккосост
samakkosost
“be warmer”
*pan-
“young”
маппан
mappan
“younger [one]”
самаппаност
samappanost
“be younger”

The superlative is phrasal, formed by adding one of the following adverbial or adjectival phrases with the comparative form of the adjective:

1) However, this agreement can be complex. This will be discussed later.

2) Literally “iron road”, from һеҕ “iron” + қаут “road”.

3) Literally “the road is [made] from iron”.