[Lingtyp] questions about adverbs

[Alex Francois]

dear Aminata,

Thanks for an interesting query.

*Mwotlap*, an Oceanic language of northern Vanuatu, has several strategies
for intensifying its stative predicates (adjectives).
Some are general strategies, that apply to any adjective: for ex. *meh* 'too
much' can combine with any predicate (*too big, too heavy...*)
But Mwotlap also has a whole set of *lexically-specific intensifiers*, very
similar to what you describe for Wolof:

   - thus the intensifier *len̄* [lɛŋ] is only used with two adjectives
   meaning 'big, large', namely *liwo *and
*kēkēn  *→ *kēkēn len̄ * "super-large"
   - the intensifier *ton̄ton̄* [tɔŋtɔŋ] only goes with the stative verb
   *sis* 'swell, be full'
   → *sis ton̄ton̄* "chock-full"
   - the intensifier *tewiwi* [tɛwiwi] goes with *yeh *'remote'
   → *yeh tewiwi*  "really far"
   - etc.

I guess I would call them *lexically-specific intensifiers*.
I found 69 of them in Mwotlap;  you can find a list in my grammatical
description (p.266-267
<http://alex.francois.online.fr/data/AlexFrancois_These_DescriptionMwotlap.pdf#page=266>,
reference below), under the label *intensifs spécifiques*.


   - 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.
   (link <http://alex.francois.online.fr/AFpub_books_e.htm#01>)

When their etymology can be reconstructed, these intensifiers may originate
in a former noun, or adjective, or verb:

   - *gagah* 'ribs'
   → *newkah gagah*  'rib-skinny' = 'very skinny'
   - *lam*  'ocean'
   → *nōqōqō lam*   'ocean-deep' = 'very deep'
   - *mēlēglēg * 'dark'
   → *nemyēpyēp mēlēglēg*  'dark-blurry' = 'very blurry'
   - *mōdō*  'orphan'
   → *nemgaysēn mōdō*  'orphan-sad' = 'really sad'
   - *yeyey*  'quiver'
   → *tamayge yeyey*   'quiver-old' = 'very old'
   - *lawlaw*  'shiny'
   → *nēmnay lawlaw*   'shiny-smart' = 'very smart, brilliant'
   - …


Some languages would use ideophones for such intensifying uses.  But I
don't believe that the Mwotlap intensifiers qualify as ideophones.

These words are indeed – as Ekkehard rightly points out – reminiscent of
the lexically-specific intensifiers of English, such as *brand new*, *chock
full*, *boiling hot*... French also has *rouge sang* (intensely red), and
phrases like *fier comme Artaban*, *riche comme Crésus*...

best
Alex
------------------------------

Alex François

LaTTiCe <http://www.lattice.cnrs.fr/en/alexandre-francois/> — CNRS–
<http://www.cnrs.fr/index.html>ENS
<https://www.ens.fr/laboratoire/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-et-cognition-umr-8094>
–Sorbonne nouvelle
<http://www.univ-paris3.fr/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-cognition-umr-8094-3458.kjsp>
Australian National University
<https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/francois-a>
Academia page <https://cnrs.academia.edu/AlexFran%C3%A7ois> – Personal
homepage <http://alex.francois.online.fr/>
------------------------------



On Wed, 17 Jun 2020 at 13:06, Majigeen Aminata <aminatamajigeen at yahoo.com>
wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> 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: *white*, *black*, *red* and each
> word-adverb match only with its color, they are not commutable.
>
> weex* tàll*: extremely white (it can't be whiter)
>
> ñuul *kukk*: extremely black (it can't be more black)
>
> xonq *coyy*: extremely red (it can't be more red)
>
> Others words adverbs go with state verbs and are specific to them as well.
> They are not commutable.
>
> baax *lool*: extremely nice (it can't be nicer)
>
> bees* tàq:* really new (nobody has ever used it)
>
> dëg*ër këcc*: extremely hard (it can't be harder)
>
> diis* gann*: really heavy (very difficult to carry)
>
> fatt* taraj*: extremely blocked (it can't be more blocked)
>
> fess *dell*: extremely full (it can't be fuller)
>
> forox* toll*: really acidic (it can't be more acidic)
>
> gàtt *ndugur*: really short (he can't be shorter)
>
> jeex* tàkk*: completely finished, ...
>
> 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. 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?
>
> Thanks and regards.
>
> Aminata
>
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