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Adjectives in Qiang 307 13 Adjectives in Qiang 307 inite markers, many can act as adverbials (taking the adverbial particle I-Jli!), and l3 many can take the postpositive adverb I-wal 'verY:' Non-stative verbs can only modify a noun in the form of a pre-head relative clause construction, while adjec­ tives can modifya noun directly in post-head position. The meaning of reduplica­ tion for most non-stative verbs is reciprocity, while the meaning of reduplication Adjectives in Qiang for adjectives is intensification or plurality.3 There is no morphology for deriving adjectives from non-adjectival verbs, although adjectives can take causative mark­ Randy f. LaPolla and Chenglong Huang ing and become transitive verbs.4 2. Semantics 1. Introduction The class of adjectives is an open class, currently with roughly 200 members, al­ though the majority of new members are loanwords from Chinese. The class in­ Qiang is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by 70,000-80,000 people in Northern cludes items related to DIMENSION, AGE, VALUE, COLOUR, PHYSICAL PROPERTY, Sichuan Province, China, classified as being in the Qiang or Tibetan nationality by 1 HUMAN PROPENSITY, SPEED, DIFFICULTY, QUALIFICATION, and QUANTIFICATION. the Chinese government. The language is verb final, agglutinative (prefixing and Words expressing the semantic field of POSITION are (locational) nouns (Istekel suffixing), and has both head-marking and dependent-marking morphology. 'behind; Imoql 'top, above: I,,-ekul 'between, centre; I~qol/ 'below; Ipienal 'near, Nouns can be defined as underived forms which can take (in)definite marking, (be)side', and Iqo'l 'before'), NUMBERS form aseparate word class (they must ap­ numeral-cIassifier phrase"s, and/or number marking, all ofwhich follow the head. pear with a classifier when used as modifier or predicate), and there a.re no words Aside from being the head of an NP, nouns can be used to modify other nouns for SIMILARITY (see discussion below). Within some of the semantic types men­ directly.(appearing immediately before the modified noun) or in a genitive phrase tioned there a number of words that are not adjectives. For example, within the (also pre-head, with or without a genitive postposition), and an NP can appear as QUANTIFICATION type, the meanings 'all' and 'only' are represented by adverbs, and the complement of a copula clause. Reduplication of nouns (other than pronouns) the meaning 'sorne, a few' is represented by the numeral for 'one' plus the plural is rare, but when it occurs it has a distributive meaning. Reduplication of personal marker ([a-ha]), or'one' + 'two' plus a classmer ([o-jo-u]). Some concepts are not pronouns has a reflexive sense. represented by basic words, but by negation ofbasic words, e.g. in QUALIPICATION, Verbs are defined as those forms which can take the orientation/direction pre­ 'correet' is a basic word, Ipel, but there is no native word for 'incorrect', only the ne­ fixes, the negative prefix, and/or the causative suffix. They are generally clearly tran­ gation of'correct; Ime-pel. sitive or intransitive, though there are same amhitransitive verbs (S:::;A or S=O), There are no ordinal nurherals in Qiang. The meanings 'first', 'second', 'third: and and intransitive verbs can be made transitive by use of the causative suffix. Redu­ 'last' are expressed by phrases involving locational nouns: plication of transitve verbs can result in an intransitive reciprocal predicate. Verbs can modify nOuns in NPs, though they must take a nominalizing suffix to do so, . (I) (a) tsi-qa'-Ie: (most-front-DEF:CL) 'the most front one' (= 'the first one') . forming a pre-head relative clause. (b) Isa-sleke-Ie: (this-back-DEF:cL) 'the one after this (one)' (= 'the A class ofintransitive stative verbs can be distinguishedfrom the other (intransi­ second one') tive and transitive) verbs by the semantics of the members of the set (words for (c) Iha-sleke-Ie: (that-back-DEF:cL) 'the one after that' (= 'the third one') DIMENSION, AGE, VALUE, COLOUR, QUALITY, and SHAPE) and their morphosyntac­ (d) IEi-sleke-Ie: (most-back-DEF:cL) 'the most back one' (= 'the last one')' tic behaviour (see also Huang 1994). Members of this class, which we can identify as 'adjectives', can be predicates, as can verbs, and take the Same person marking :1 This is a sufficient hut not a necessary condition for adjective status: except for Itopul 'to like (agreement) forms, orientation/direction marking, causative marking, evidential (something): anyverb that can take I-wal will be an intransitive state predicate verb, but a verb that marking, and most aspect and negation marking as non-stative intransitive verbs, cannot take I-wal may' also be an intransitive state predicate verb. but unlike non-stative verbs, they can be nominalized using the definite and indef- , It could be that the sense of plu~ality is involved in both types, as the reclprocal must mvolve more than one pers~n. 4 See LaPolla (2003) and LaPolla with Huang (2003) for more extensive dlScusslons of the Q13ng language. 1 The name 'Qiang' is an exonym given by the Chinese. The speakers of this Ianguage call them­ selves l'Z,.mel (or a variant of this word) in their own language. 5 Locational nouns can take the adverbial/tGiI 'most', but they are not adjectlves; they cannot modify nouns directly and cannot be predicates. 308 Randy J. LaPolla and Chenglong Huang 13 Adjectives in Qiang For ordinals higher than 'third; the cardinal numbers plus classifiers are used as or­ the case of those loanwords that take the native verb Ip,l, the prefixes are added to dinal numbers, e.g. I"",-,-zel ('four' + classifier)'the fourth (one)' (= 'four (of some­ this verb, as in Ithunt,,-t,-p,1 'notified' « Chinese tiJngzhf). For a small number thing)'). of adjectives, possibly older loans, instead ofhaving the I-thai suffix, the form I-til Adjectives can be comparative even without overt marking of comparison (2a). follows the borrowed form, e.g. Inin-ti/ 'fragmentary, piecernea!' « Chinese ling), I Adding the adverb I-wal can clarifythat anon-comparative sense is intended (2b). lan-ti/'blue' « Chinese /an), Ijyuan-ti/,round' « Chinese yuan). Tbis suffix is itself To specify a comparative sense, an adverbial such as [a-za1 ('one' + cL(default clas­ a 10an form of the Chinese associative/nominalizing particle deo sifier)) 'a.little' can be added before the adjective (2C). There is no noun-adjective overlap, and no way to derive an adjective from a (2) (a) Ihe: liwi. (b) Ihe: liwi-wa. noun except in the case of the auxiliaries I-thai and l-p,1 mentioned above. Tbis is 3sg tall 3sg tall-very done only with borrowed words, not with native words. 'He is taU/taller: 'He is very tall: (c) Ihe: a-za liwi. 3. Functioning as predicate 3sg one-CL tall 'He is a bit taller: The adjectives function as intransitive predicates much the same w:ay other verbs do. Tbey can take aspect marking, negation, person marking, causative marking, Some adjectives are formed noun + verb combinations with metaphorical from and/or in~errogative marking. Many adjectives, due to the semantics of stative meanings. Following are Some examples using the noun IGtGi:(mi)1 'heart': verbs, do not take imperative marking or prohibitive marking unless causativized. (a) ElEi:mi-zdzi 'sad' < 'heart' + 'painful' In Qiang there are several types of aspect marking: change of state aspect, per­ (b) EIEi:mi-ba 'brave' < 'heart' + ebig' fective aspect, prospective aspect, continuative ('still') aspect, iterative aspect, com­ (c) EIEi-ku;-na 'happy' < 'heart' + 'base' + 'good' pletive aspect, and experiential aspect. Tbe adjectives can take all of these types of aspect marking except the completive aspect marker ([-das]), unless it is first A number of the adjectives in Qiang are Chinese loanwords. When verbs, includ­ causativized, due to the stative nature of adjectives. Change of state aspect marking ing adjectives (4C)-(4h), are borrowed into Qiang, they are borrowed as nouns. In (I-jil) marks the beginning of an action or the coming into being of the state repe order to be used as verbs in Qiang, the suffix I-thai is added to monosyllabic bor­ resented bythe adjective, as in (5). If an adjective takes the change of state marking rowed verbs, while the verb Ip,1 'to do' is added to polysyllabic borrowed verbs. without perfective marking, the implication is that the change into the state has Following are some examples: begnn, but not yet completed. (4) (a) tuen-tJza . 'squat' < Chinese dun + AUX es) pie-Ie: ba-ji. (b) ;a-Iha 'spend (money)' < Chinese 5hz + AUX pig-DEF:CL big-CSM (c) IEin-Iha 'busy' < Chinese jin 'tight' + AUX 'Tbe pig has started to becorne big: (d) lan-Iha 'tender' < Chinese nen + AUX (e) wen-Iha 'steady' < Chinese wen + AUX If ihe change ofstate is completed, then perfective aspect marking would be used to­ (f) IEiau-Iha 'cunning' < Chinese jiao + AUX gether with the change of state marker. Perfective aspect is marked by the addition (g) pm-Iha 'stupid' < Chines,e ben + AUX of one of the eight orientation prefixes: It,-I 'vertically up; lfi,-I 'vertically down; (h) tEQukau-pa 'prond' < Chinese jiiio-ao + 'to do' In,-I 'upstream. Is,-I 'downstream. tz,-I 'towards the centre', Ida-I 'outward from (i) 6un]lian-pa 'train' < Chinese ximlian + 'to do' centre', 1,-1 'in', Ih,-/ 'out: When adjectives take the orientation prefixes, the effect of Ci) lelsui-pa 'offend' < Chinese dezui + 'to do' adding the prefix is somewhat different from that with non -stative verbs. When one of the orientation prefixes is added to a non-stative verb, the meaning is either one of Even if the total phrase borrowed from Chinese involves more than one syllable, if the verbal part of it is monosyllabic, then I-thai is added, as in, for example, orientation or perfective aspect, but with adjectives, addition of an orientation pre­ fix marks a change of state (a stative verb becomes an accomplishment verb).
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