Comparatives

[Fabre Alain]

Dear Laura,
I have some examples which might be of interest. These are from Nivacle, a Mataguayo language spoken in the Paraguayan Chaco. Instead of oblique NPs, Nivacle employs obligatory applicative suffixes on verbs. Apart from twenty applicative suffixes, Nivacle has also three associated motion suffixes, which indicate direction of a non-subject participant, and are also suffixed to the verb, e.g. I saw him coming (with: -xulh: ventive), I saw her going away (with : -ch’e/-k’e: itive), and I expected his coming (with delayed ventive: -k’oya). Interestingly, Nivacle does not use applicatives in comparisons, but one of two associated motion suffixes, ventive for equality, and delayed ventive for introducing the positive standard:

1) Positive:

ya’-pitex-‘a-k’oya
1S-be.tall-2-AM.DELAYED.VENT
‘I am taller than you’

2) Equality. In the following example, which is fairly representative and by no ways exceptional, a verb ‘to be deep’ has been nominalized and then predicatively used:

lh-apato-nyash-ch’e-vat-xulh
3POSS-be.deep-NMLZ-PL-RECIP-AM.VENT
‘They have the same depth’ (“Their depth is like one another’s”)

3) Negative. The negative comparison is more complex. It is achieved through a two-verb construction, which combines the defective verb a’lha ‘be.less’ followed by a third person instrumental applicative (-e-sh), and the verb containing the standard of comparison and the delayed ventive suffix (second example). If the standard of comparison is an NP, this bears no special marking (first example):  

pa       plomo    kaclek                
D        lead       3S.be.heavy      
a’lhe-e-sh                              pav’elhcha        klesanlhi-y
3S.be.less-3-APPL.INST          other                metal-PL
‘other metals are less heavy than lead’ (“lead is heavy, the other metals are less”)

avaatsha       a’lhe-e-sh                     
you (sg.)       3S.be.less-3-APPL.INST          
ca              na-t’un-‘in-yi-k’oya
SUB     2S-be.strong-INTENS-1-AM.DELAYED.VENT
‘you are less strong than me’ (“you are less that you are strong than me”)


All the best,
Alain Fabre