The adjectives tag has no wiki summary.
2
votes
2answers
174 views
Examples of Equative Genitive Adjectival Languages
Sorry for the confusing title, but I'm not aware of any common linguistic terms for the concepts at hand, so I'm kinda making them up as I go. So I'll start by explaining the question.
There are a ...
5
votes
1answer
192 views
What is the origin of the Latin suffix -alis/-alia?
What is the origin of the Latin suffix -alis/-alia? Can it be an Etruscan borrowing? Is Russian adjectival suffix -аль- a borrowing from Latin?
6
votes
2answers
156 views
Are there languages where adjectives are clearly neither noun-like nor verb-like?
Most language I have some knowlege of have adjectives with are either a) are nominal in nature or b) are verbal is nature. (apologies if this is not the best wording.)
In German, Romanian, and ...
8
votes
2answers
252 views
Are there languages with more than three degrees of comparison?
In English and other languages there are three degrees of comparison: positive, comparative and superlative (e.g. tall, taller, tallest). Are there languages with more than three degrees, expressed ...
11
votes
3answers
247 views
Does any language use bound morphology to express the concept “less”?
In English, many adjectives support the -er ending to express a notion of exceeding:
John is taller than Mary (is).
Mary is smarter than John (is).
Of course, you can also have the more analytic ...
3
votes
3answers
606 views
English words which are both verbs and adjectives
A question about UI design led me to speculate about English words which are both a verb and an adjective. My answer to the question addresses this linguistics issue as the root of the UI issue. I ...
5
votes
0answers
141 views
Is there any difference in meaning or nuance when the adjective follows the noun in Georgian?
Many languages allow the order of adjectives compared to nouns to vary, but for different reasons:
Some languages have very free word order in which case there is little difference between adj + ...
8
votes
3answers
309 views
How can adjective-noun order in French be explained by parameter theory?
I just finished reading The Atoms of Language. The gist is that languages have parameters, one of which will tell you which side of a phrase to add a new word.
But in some languages, like French and ...
4
votes
3answers
204 views
Are there any other rules for adjective order?
At the English Language and Usage Stackexchange site, the question was asked What is the rule for adjective order? and the answer boiled down to:
(article) + number + judgement/attitude + size + ...
