Agreement of Adjectives

[Andrew Carnie]

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ReceivedFrom: "Nancy Stenson" <stenson at maroon.tc.umn.edu>
To: CELTLING at mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Adjective Agreement in Irish

In message <312207c446f9017 at mhub1.tc.umn.edu> The Celtic Linguistics List
writes:
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>
> ReceivedFrom: Elizabeth Pyatt <pyatt1 at husc.harvard.edu>
> To: The Celtic Linguistics List <CELTLING at mitvma.mit.edu>
> Subject: Irish adjectival Agreement
>
> Dear Celtling:
>
>         I have a wee question about Irish adjectival agreement.  I read
> somewhere that predicate adjectives don't inflect for number and case,
> but the book didn't give any relevant examples.  So in the following
> sentences, could someone tell me which is the right adjectiuval form?
>
>         Ta/ na fir (mo/r mo/ra).
Ta/ na fir mo/r.
>         Ta/ siad na fir reasu/nta (mo/r mor/ra)
This one isn't grammatical either way, but if the intent is 'they are
reasonably large/tall men,' then either of the following would work:
          Ta/ siad ina bhfir mho/ra.
          Is fir mho/ra iad.

There are various other possibilities depending on the dialect, but as far
as I know, the plural adjective is correct in all cases for the attributive
usage, regardless of the syntax of the rest of the sentence. Lenition goes
with the preceding palatal consonant of the N; I don't know if that is found
in all dialects or not, but I think so (the above is Connemara).

Nancy Stenson






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