[Lingtyp] questions about adverbs

Kofi Yakpo kofi at hku.hk
Thu Jun 18 08:56:19 UTC 2020


Dear Aminata,

As Dmitry points out, these words would normally be referred to as
ideophones in African linguistics. Most ideophones in "African languages"
(they are more of an areal than a genetic feature) are
lexically/constructionally restricted in one or the other way, so there is
not much need to invent a new label for them besides "ideophone".
Colour-specific ideophones can be found in all Atlantic-Congo languages I
am familiarity with, and the European-lexifier creoles of Africa incl.
Kriyol (Casamance, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde).

You could check the work of Mark Dingemanse and the works he cites for an
overview of most of the literature.

Best,
Kofi
————
Dr Kofi Yakpo • Associate Professor
University of Hong Kong <http://arts.hku.hk/> • Linguistics
<http://www.linguistics.hku.hk/> • Scholars Hub
<http://hub.hku.hk/cris/rp/rp01715>
Resident Scholar: Chi Sun College
<http://www.chisuncollege.hku.hk/the-college/>

My publications @ zenodo
<https://zenodo.org/search?page=1&size=20&q=yakpo&sort=-publication_date>
On the Outcomes of Prosodic Contact <https://muse.jhu.edu/article/751031>
A Grammar of Pichi <http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/85>


On Wed, Jun 17, 2020 at 7:07 PM 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
>
> _______________________________________________
> Lingtyp mailing list
> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20200618/82a69c64/attachment.htm>


More information about the Lingtyp mailing list