[Lingtyp] questions about adverbs

Thu Jun 18 13:25:24 UTC 2020

There are similar "ideophones” in Chadic languages. Newman (1968) calls
them “adjectival intensifiers” in Hausa. Blench (2013) refers to “colour
intensifiers” in Mwaghavul. I treat them as a type of ideophone in Barayin
(Lovestrand 2019).

Note that “ideophones” in Chadic languages typically have adverb-like
morphosyntactic properties.

-Joey

Blench, R. (2013). Mwaghavul expressives. In H. Tourneux (Ed.), Topics in
Chadic Linguistics VII: papers from the 6th Biennial International
Colloquium on the Chadic Languages, Villejuif, September 22-23, 2011 (pp.
53–75). Cologne: Köppe.

Lovestrand, Joseph. (2019). Ideophones in Barayin. In *Topics in Chadic
Linguistics X: Papers from the 9th Biennial International Colloquium on the
Chadic Languages*. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.

Newman, P. (1968). Ideophones from a syntactic point of view. Journal of
West African Languages, 2, 107–117.

-- 
Joseph Lovestrand
British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow
School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics
SOAS University of London

On Thu, Jun 18, 2020 at 1:29 PM Östen Dahl <oesten at ling.su.se> wrote:

> I would agree with Martin here. I think ideophones can have different
> functions, so just calling them “ideophones” would be only half the story
> anyway.
>
> It is also worth mentioning that lexically specific intensifiers may start
> out with a transparent meaning which is later bleached as the intensifier
> generalizes. In spoken Swedish, the noun *jätte *’giant’ was prefixed to
> *stor* ’big’ as a lexically specific intensifier, but is now frequently
> used with just any adjective, e.g. *jättebra* ‘very good’.
> Prescriptivists were not happy with combinations such as *jätteliten*
> ‘(lit.) giant small’.
>
>
>
>    - Östen
>
>
>
> *Från:* Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> *För *Martin
> Haspelmath
> *Skickat:* den 18 juni 2020 11:21
> *Till:* lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> *Ämne:* Re: [Lingtyp] questions about adverbs
>
>
>
> Yes, they remind one of ideophones, but it seems that Alex François's term
> "lexically specific intensifiers" captures best what these forms are
> (though I would prefer "degree modifiers", to avoid confusion with
> self-intensifiers).
>
> It seems that "ideophones" are generally understood more broadly, because
> they do not have to be degree modifiers (and maybe more narrowly at the
> same time, because they have to be "marked", and "depict sensory imagery",
> according to Dingemanse: http://ideophone.org/working-definition/).
>
> It may be worth studying lexically specific degree modifiers more
> systematically across languages. Ekkehard König mentioned English
> "ice-cold", "crystal clear", "pitch-black", and German "hunde-müde"
> [dog-tired], "stock-dunkel" [stick-dark], and Jussi Ylikoski mentioned
> Finnish "upo-uusi" (extremeley new) – these are usually treated as marginal
> phenomena, but the fact that such lexically specific degree modifiers are
> found on at least three different continents (Wolof, Mwotlap, English) may
> point to something more general.
>
> Martin
>
> P.S. The term "adverb" is not wrong, but I try to avoid it, because it has
> been applied to a very heterogeneous range of phenomena.
>
> Am 18.06.20 um 10:56 schrieb Kofi Yakpo:
>
> 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
>
>
>
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> --
>
> Martin Haspelmath (haspelmath at shh.mpg.de)
>
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>
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>
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>
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>
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