[Lexicog] Almost

[John Roberts]

Ron

In Amele (Papuan) *adih* 'almost, nearly' is the 'irrealis' opposite to
*dih* 'just, only'. *adih* describes the proximity of an event that hasn't
happened or a state that doesn't exist while *dih* describes the proximity
of an event that has happened or state that exists. E.g.

dih ija toniga    'I just fell.'
just I fell

adih ija toniga    'I almost/nearly fell.'
almost I fell

wa dih gag beia    'the water just boiled'
water just bubble came up

wa adih gag bena    'the water is almost/nearly boiled'
water almost bubble comes up

*adih* is more commonly used with an irrealis mood, e.g.

wag lecis adih wa dunuh gotooub
canoe two almost water inside sank.irrealis
'the two canoes almost sank'

*dih* occurs far more commonly in texts than *adih* and I don't have any
Amele native speakers to hand to explore the full range of uses of *adih*.
But I imagine you could say any of the following:

adih am boub    'almost full'
adih gadoub    'almost empty'
adih hedoub    'almost finished'
adih tonoub    'almost fell'
adih cali boub    'almost overflowed'
adih basaoub    'almost perfect'
uqa dana adih biloub    'he is almost a man'
eu goldoc adih nijoub    'it is almost round'

There are other ways of expressing proximity in the language, e.g. *ihen*
'near the speaker', *euhen* 'near the hearer' and *ouhen* 'near neither the
speaker nor hearer', but *adih* is the only way to express irrealis
proximity to events or states and is the only word in my Amele dictionary I
have glossed as 'almost'. In Cognitive Grammar the two basic domains of
cognition are time (for events) and space (for things), but the evidence
from Amele would indicate that there is a need for a third basic domain of
cognition of 'realis' vs. 'irrealis'.

John Roberts





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