<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">dear Aminata,</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Thanks for an interesting query.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><b>Mwotlap</b>, an Oceanic language of northern Vanuatu, has several strategies for intensifying its stative predicates (adjectives).</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Some are general strategies, that apply to any adjective: for ex. <i>meh</i> 'too much' can combine with any predicate (<i>too big, too heavy...</i>)</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">But Mwotlap also has a whole set of <b>lexically-specific intensifiers</b>, very similar to what you describe for Wolof:</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><ul><li>thus the intensifier <i>len̄</i> [lɛŋ] is only used with two adjectives meaning 'big, large', namely <i>liwo </i>and <i>kēkēn <br></i>→ <i>kēkēn <b>len̄ </b></i><b> </b>"super-large"</li><li>the intensifier <i>ton̄ton̄</i> [tɔŋtɔŋ] only goes with the stative verb <i>sis</i> 'swell, be full' <br>→ <i>sis <b>ton̄ton̄</b></i> "chock-full"</li><li>the intensifier <i>tewiwi</i> [tɛwiwi] goes with <i>yeh </i>'remote' <br>→ <i>yeh <b>tewiwi</b></i><b> </b>"really far"</li><li>etc.</li></ul></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">I guess I would call them <b>lexically-specific intensifiers</b>. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">I found 69 of them in Mwotlap; you can find a list in my grammatical description (<a href="http://alex.francois.online.fr/data/AlexFrancois_These_DescriptionMwotlap.pdf#page=266">p.266-267</a>, reference below), under the label <i>intensifs spécifiques</i>.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"><div class="gmail_default"><ul><li><font color="#666666"><span style="font-family:"arial narrow",sans-serif">François, Alexandre. 2001. Contraintes de structures et liberté dans l'organisation du discours. Une description du mwotlap, langue océanienne du Vanuatu. PhD dissertation in Linguistics, Université Paris-IV Sorbonne. (</span><a href="http://alex.francois.online.fr/AFpub_books_e.htm#01" style="font-family:"arial narrow",sans-serif">link</a><span style="font-family:"arial narrow",sans-serif">) </span></font></li></ul></div></blockquote></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">When their etymology can be reconstructed, these intensifiers may originate in a former noun, or adjective, or verb:</div><div class="gmail_default" style=""><ul style=""><li style=""><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><i style="">gagah</i> 'ribs' <br>→ <i style="">newkah <b>gagah</b></i><b style=""> </b>'rib-skinny' = 'very skinny'</font></li><li style=""><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><i>lam</i> 'ocean' <br>→ <i>nōqōqō <b>lam</b></i><b> </b>'ocean-deep' = 'very deep'</font></li><li style=""><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><i>mēlēglēg </i> 'dark' <br>→ <i>nemyēpyēp <b>mēlēglēg</b></i><b> </b>'dark-blurry' = 'very blurry'</font></li><li style=""><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><i>mōdō</i> 'orphan' <br>→ <i>nemgaysēn <b>mōdō</b></i><b> </b>'orphan-sad' = 'really sad'</font></li><li style=""><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><i>yeyey</i> 'quiver'<br>→ <i>tamayge <b>yeyey</b></i><b> </b>'quiver-old' = 'very old'</font></li><li style=""><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><i>lawlaw</i> 'shiny'<br>→ <i>nēmnay <b>lawlaw</b></i><b> </b>'shiny-smart' = 'very smart, brilliant'</font></li><li style=""><font face="verdana, sans-serif">…</font></li></ul></div><div class="gmail_default" style=""><div class="gmail_default" style=""><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style=""><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Some languages would use ideophones for such intensifying uses. But I don't believe that the Mwotlap intensifiers qualify as ideophones.</span><br></div></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><div class="gmail_default"></div></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">These words are indeed – as Ekkehard rightly points out –
reminiscent of the lexically-specific intensifiers of English, such as <i>brand new</i>, <i>chock full</i>, <i>boiling hot</i>... French also has <i>rouge sang</i> (intensely red), and phrases like <i>fier comme Artaban</i>, <i>riche comme Crésus</i>...</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">best</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Alex</div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><hr style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px" width="70" size="1" noshade align="left"><div style="font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration:none;font-family:"Segoe UI",Verdana,"Trebuchet MS",Tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,102,102);font-size:11px;line-height:16.5px"><p style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Alex François</p><p style="text-decoration:none"><span style="text-decoration:none;font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif"><a href="http://www.lattice.cnrs.fr/en/alexandre-francois/" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">LaTTiCe</a> — <a title="ENS" href="http://www.cnrs.fr/index.html" rel="noopener" style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration:none" target="_blank">CNRS–</a><a title="ENS" href="https://www.ens.fr/laboratoire/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-et-cognition-umr-8094" rel="noopener" style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration:none" target="_blank">ENS</a>–<a title="ENS" href="http://www.univ-paris3.fr/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-cognition-umr-8094-3458.kjsp" rel="noopener" style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Sorbonne nouvelle</a><br><a href="https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/francois-a" rel="noopener" style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Australian National University</a><br><a href="https://cnrs.academia.edu/AlexFran%C3%A7ois" rel="noopener" style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Academia page</a> – <a href="http://alex.francois.online.fr/" rel="noopener" style="color:rgb(51,102,204);text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Personal homepage</a></span></p><hr style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:tahoma,sans-serif" size="1"> </div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, 17 Jun 2020 at 13:06, Majigeen Aminata <<a href="mailto:aminatamajigeen@yahoo.com">aminatamajigeen@yahoo.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div><div style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px"><div dir="ltr">Dear all,</div><div dir="ltr">
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:150%"><span style="background-image:none;line-height:150%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-size:12pt;background-repeat:repeat;background-size:auto;background-color:whitesmoke">I am currently working
on what are called “adverbs” (see words un bold) in wolof literature. Wolof, spoken in Senegal (West
Africa) has specific words that only work with some colors: <i>white</i>, <i>black</i>, <i>red</i> and each
word-adverb match only with its color, they are not </span><span style="background-image:none;color:black;line-height:150%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-size:12pt;background-repeat:repeat;background-size:auto;background-color:rgb(241,243,244)">commutable</span><span style="background-image:none;line-height:150%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-size:12pt;background-repeat:repeat;background-size:auto;background-color:whitesmoke">.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:150%"><span>weex<b>
tàll</b>:
extremely white (it can't be whiter)</span><span style="background-image:none;background-repeat:repeat;background-size:auto;background-color:whitesmoke"></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:150%"><span>ñuul
<b>kukk</b>:
extremely black (it can't be more black)</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:150%"><span>xonq
<b>coyy</b>:
extremely</span> red (it can't be more red)</p><p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="background-image:none;background-repeat:repeat;background-size:auto;background-color:whitesmoke"><span style="word-spacing:0px;white-space:pre-wrap;float:none">Others words adverbs go with state verbs and are specific to them as well. They are not commutable.</span></span><br style="word-spacing:0px"></span></p><p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">
<span><span style="word-spacing:0px;white-space:pre-wrap;float:none">baax <b>lool</b></span>: extremely nice (it can't be nicer)</span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:150%"><span>bees<b> tàq:</b>
really new (nobody has ever used it)</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:150%"><span>dëg<b>ër këcc</b>:
extremely hard (it can't be harder)</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:150%"><span>diis<b> gann</b>:
really heavy (very difficult to carry</span>)</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:150%"><span>fatt<b> taraj</b>:
extremely blocked (it can't be more blocked)</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:150%"><span>fess <b>dell</b>:
extremely full (it can't be fuller)</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:150%"><span>forox<b> toll</b>:
really acidic (it can't be more acidic)</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:150%"><span>gàtt <b>ndugur</b>:
really short (he can't be shorter)</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:150%"><span>jeex<b> tàkk</b>:
completely finished, <font face=""Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color:transparent">.</font></span><span style="background-image:none;line-height:150%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-size:12pt;background-repeat:repeat;background-size:auto;background-color:whitesmoke">..</span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><br style="word-spacing:0px;white-space:pre-wrap"></span></p><p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">
<span style="background-image:none;background-repeat:repeat;background-size:auto;background-color:whitesmoke"><span style="word-spacing:0px;white-space:pre-wrap;float:none">In Wolof they are called intensifiers but this term does not convince me because it can be confusing. They do not intensify the verbs. These words mean that the state or action of the verb is at its end of completude.
</span></span></span><span style="background-image:none;line-height:150%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-size:12pt;background-repeat:repeat;background-size:auto;background-color:whitesmoke">I would like to know
if there are languages that work like that and what is the terminology used
for this kind of construction. Can someone also recommend me new documentation
on the definition of the concepts of verbs, adverbs, adjectives… in African
languages?</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:150%"><span style="background-image:none;line-height:150%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-size:12pt;background-repeat:repeat;background-size:auto;background-color:whitesmoke">Thanks and regards.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:150%" dir="ltr"><span style="background-image:none;line-height:150%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;font-size:12pt;background-repeat:repeat;background-size:auto;background-color:whitesmoke">Aminata </span></p>
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