Classical Arithide adjectives: Difference between revisions
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'''Adjectives in [[Classical Arithide]]''', in accordance with the language's left-branching nature, are generally placed before the noun they modify (as with [[Classical Arithide adverbs|adverbs]]), but may technically be placed anywhere in a sentence due to the extensive case-marking system. This latter point is definitely true only for the standard dialect of the Equora dynasty; adjectival case-marking was rare before and gradually fell out of favour after the time, and even in the Equora, was an innovation adopted from the dialects of western [[Calagia]] and [[Demedria]]. | |||
As such, in Classical Arithide, adjectives were a rather nebulous class of words, and their indeterminate, halfway-house status contributed to their amorphism, or rather polymorphism, over the years, and indeed, a cursory glance at the adjectives in a certain text and the way they are inflected is one of the surest ways to discern the period from which it came. | |||
The prestige tongue of the Equora dynasty, the most widely written and recognised variant, and the common modern benchmark for "standard" Classical Arithide, had two types of word that could be considered as "adjectives": | |||
=== | #'''Verbal adjectives''', also called '''adjectival verbs''', depending on the academic source, which were technically stative verbs, and constitute the vast majority of Classical Artihide adjectives. These were and are quoted in dictionaries in the infinitive verb-form. | ||
#'''Nominal adjectives''', or '''adjectival nouns''', again depending on academic source, which behaved grammatically as nouns, like Latin adjectives. Included in this group are some of the most commonly used adjectives. These were and are quoted in dictionaries in the nominative singular of the first declension. | |||
It is worth noting that while nominal adjectives understandably decline for case, even verbal adjectives, when used attributively, take case-endings as well. | |||
==Verbal adjectives== | |||
Most words that could conceivably be used with an adjectival function were technically stative verbs, e.g. ''egnēn'', "black", or literally, "to be black", having the ability to conjugate for tense, mood and aspect while modifying a noun, whether predicatively or attributively. These adjectives behaved much like the "''i''-adjectives" of Japanese. While predicative use of verbs as adjectives was expected, the attributive property grew out of a grammatical device, now largely disused, of making verbs into modifiers by displacing them to the front of nouns rather than behind them, as is the usual SOV order. | |||
===Conjugation=== | |||
To reuse the example above, the verb ''egnēn'', which comes from ''ek'' "the colour black" (see [[#Deriving adjectives from nouns]] below), means "to be black". It would then be conjugated ''egna'' to mean "it is black", or ''egne'' to express that it used to be black; this applied when the adjective was predicative ("the car is '''black'''"). When the adjective is used attributively ("the '''black''' car"), the aspectual participles are used instead, and while past states still retain the use of the perfective aspect (''egnēm''), the imperfective aspect is employed for current states (''egnī''). | To reuse the example above, the verb ''egnēn'', which comes from ''ek'' "the colour black" (see [[#Deriving adjectives from nouns]] below), means "to be black". It would then be conjugated ''egna'' to mean "it is black", or ''egne'' to express that it used to be black; this applied when the adjective was predicative ("the car is '''black'''"). When the adjective is used attributively ("the '''black''' car"), the aspectual participles are used instead, and while past states still retain the use of the perfective aspect (''egnēm''), the imperfective aspect is employed for current states (''egnī''). | ||
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*'''''Ielanēm''' konkanditis '''egnī''' assula levē agare'' The sky that was '''once blue''' but now '''black''' with rage howled ferociously (Osces, ''Poetry'') | *'''''Ielanēm''' konkanditis '''egnī''' assula levē agare'' The sky that was '''once blue''' but now '''black''' with rage howled ferociously (Osces, ''Poetry'') | ||
=== | ===Attributive usage & case-marking=== | ||
Case endings are, logically, not required with predicative uses of adjectives, not only because the adjective can only, by definition, be in the nominative, but also because the adjective is grammatically a verb, thus inflecting only for time and not case. With attributive use, however, cases are marked, though in the nominative, generally no endings are appended. When the adjective modifies a noun in a case other than the nominative, however, case endings become necessary for purposes of disambiguation: | Case endings are, logically, not required with predicative uses of adjectives, not only because the adjective can only, by definition, be in the nominative, but also because the adjective is grammatically a verb, thus inflecting only for time and not case. With attributive use, however, cases are marked, though in the nominative, generally no endings are appended. When the adjective modifies a noun in a case other than the nominative, however, case endings become necessary for purposes of disambiguation: | ||
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Similarly, these derived adjectives were affected by the rise of the use of final ''-m'' late in the Equora. | Similarly, these derived adjectives were affected by the rise of the use of final ''-m'' late in the Equora. | ||
==Nominal adjectives== | |||
The nominal adjectives, which behave as nouns like their Latin counterparts, do not, due to their nature, conjugate for time-distinctions unlike the verbals. In addition, as they are technically nouns, their semantic scope does not include a [[Classical Arithide copula|copula]], and in predicative usage such an equating verb is frequently needed to express what would, with verbal adjectives, be encoded in the conjugation; innovation, however, gradually reduced such need by reanalysing the nominal adjectives as nouns per se, and thence deriving verbal adjectives through the suffixation of ''-nēn'' (see [[#Deriving adjectives from nouns]] below). | |||
==Deriving adjectives from nouns== | ==Deriving adjectives from nouns== | ||
Revision as of 21:30, 28 April 2007
Adjectives in Classical Arithide, in accordance with the language's left-branching nature, are generally placed before the noun they modify (as with adverbs), but may technically be placed anywhere in a sentence due to the extensive case-marking system. This latter point is definitely true only for the standard dialect of the Equora dynasty; adjectival case-marking was rare before and gradually fell out of favour after the time, and even in the Equora, was an innovation adopted from the dialects of western Calagia and Demedria.
As such, in Classical Arithide, adjectives were a rather nebulous class of words, and their indeterminate, halfway-house status contributed to their amorphism, or rather polymorphism, over the years, and indeed, a cursory glance at the adjectives in a certain text and the way they are inflected is one of the surest ways to discern the period from which it came.
The prestige tongue of the Equora dynasty, the most widely written and recognised variant, and the common modern benchmark for "standard" Classical Arithide, had two types of word that could be considered as "adjectives":
- Verbal adjectives, also called adjectival verbs, depending on the academic source, which were technically stative verbs, and constitute the vast majority of Classical Artihide adjectives. These were and are quoted in dictionaries in the infinitive verb-form.
- Nominal adjectives, or adjectival nouns, again depending on academic source, which behaved grammatically as nouns, like Latin adjectives. Included in this group are some of the most commonly used adjectives. These were and are quoted in dictionaries in the nominative singular of the first declension.
It is worth noting that while nominal adjectives understandably decline for case, even verbal adjectives, when used attributively, take case-endings as well.
Verbal adjectives
Most words that could conceivably be used with an adjectival function were technically stative verbs, e.g. egnēn, "black", or literally, "to be black", having the ability to conjugate for tense, mood and aspect while modifying a noun, whether predicatively or attributively. These adjectives behaved much like the "i-adjectives" of Japanese. While predicative use of verbs as adjectives was expected, the attributive property grew out of a grammatical device, now largely disused, of making verbs into modifiers by displacing them to the front of nouns rather than behind them, as is the usual SOV order.
Conjugation
To reuse the example above, the verb egnēn, which comes from ek "the colour black" (see #Deriving adjectives from nouns below), means "to be black". It would then be conjugated egna to mean "it is black", or egne to express that it used to be black; this applied when the adjective was predicative ("the car is black"). When the adjective is used attributively ("the black car"), the aspectual participles are used instead, and while past states still retain the use of the perfective aspect (egnēm), the imperfective aspect is employed for current states (egnī).
- Viringa egna. The sedan is black.
- Egnī viringa dagemenum dakte. The black sedan stopped in front of the house. (lit. "is-black sedan house-front-at stopped")
The existence of this present- and past-state distinction enables some handy locutions as well:
- Ielanēm konkanditis egnī assula levē agare The sky that was once blue but now black with rage howled ferociously (Osces, Poetry)
Attributive usage & case-marking
Case endings are, logically, not required with predicative uses of adjectives, not only because the adjective can only, by definition, be in the nominative, but also because the adjective is grammatically a verb, thus inflecting only for time and not case. With attributive use, however, cases are marked, though in the nominative, generally no endings are appended. When the adjective modifies a noun in a case other than the nominative, however, case endings become necessary for purposes of disambiguation:
- Viringa egnī vage. The black sedan went.
- Viringetis egnītis vage. (I/We/You/He/She/It/They) went in the black sedan. (lit. "by the black sedan")
The adjective takes on the case endings of the appropriate lexical class, i.e. the one to which the noun being modified belongs. Exceptions are that nouns of the sixth declension (agentive nouns) take adjectives declined in the fifth declension, and that declension VIII nouns (derivatives) take adjectives declined as per declensions I, II, III or IV according on their nominative ending.
Note: towards the end of the dynasty the innovation of a final -m, borrowed from the perfective participle, with the imperfective participle (leading to egnīm etc.) spread to adjectives as well, and subsequently gave rise to the -im adjectival ending of Modern Arithide.
Derivatives from verbs
The participle forms of verbs could also be used as adjectives, without further modification. These derivative adjectives fall under the nominal class, and are not availed the subtle distinctions of present and past states as are the adjectives of the verbal class. Conjugation follows as per the declension class of the noun modified.
- Īde tath zurōnēs enēn mēsēs labi, futisi lārīē segē nollos.
alas again cruel.PL return.INFIN Fate.PL call.IMPF, hide.IMPF-and.CLIT swimming.PL.ACC eye.PL.ACC sleep.NOM
"Alas again the cruel Fates are calling me back, and sleep is obscuring my swimming eyes." (Lēspēs, Laments)
Similarly, these derived adjectives were affected by the rise of the use of final -m late in the Equora.
Nominal adjectives
The nominal adjectives, which behave as nouns like their Latin counterparts, do not, due to their nature, conjugate for time-distinctions unlike the verbals. In addition, as they are technically nouns, their semantic scope does not include a copula, and in predicative usage such an equating verb is frequently needed to express what would, with verbal adjectives, be encoded in the conjugation; innovation, however, gradually reduced such need by reanalysing the nominal adjectives as nouns per se, and thence deriving verbal adjectives through the suffixation of -nēn (see #Deriving adjectives from nouns below).
Deriving adjectives from nouns
To make an adjective of a noun in Classical Artihide requires only a very regular process: the adding of the verbifying suffix -nēn to the noun. The suffix is made up of two parts, the first (-n-) being the marker for modifiers, and the second (-ēn) being the infinitive ending for consonant-stem verbs.
The suffix is appended to the stem of the noun, i.e. the form without any grammatical ending (didek- < didekos); in cases where this results in certain consonant clusters, some phonetic processes are triggered:
- -kn > -gn: didekos > didegnēn
- -fn > -vn: lafos > lavnēn
- -bn > -mn: laber > lamnēn
- -tn, -dn > -nn: dīmotos > dīmonnēn, ridos > rinnēn
- -sn > -zn: thalasa > thalaznēn
- -rn > -ren: klaros > klarenēn
All other unlisted consonant clusters are permissible. Note also that -gn is pronounced [ŋn].
