Abstract

Likpakpaln is a little-described Mabia (Gur) language of northern Ghana. Drawing on primary data, this first study of adjectives in Likpakpaln concludes that the language has a small, closed adjective class of about 20 members that shares grammatical properties with nouns and verbs to varying degrees. Contrary to what is the case in other Mabia languages, Likpakpaln adjectives lack inherent class markers. We identify three types of adjectives, distinguishable from nouns and verbs on morpho-syntactic and semantic grounds. Type 1 items lean towards nouns and never function as predicates of verbal clauses. Type 2 consists of one item, possibly a loan, and appears in a predicate adjective construction typical of languages with large adjective classes. Type 3 adjectives lean towards verbs and may form the predicate of verbal clauses. An understanding of Likpakpaln adjectives can contribute to refining our current knowledge of the genetic and typological position of Likpakpaln in the Mabia family.

摘要

Likpakpaln是加纳北部的一种鲜为人知的Mabia（Gur）语言。根据主要数据，对Likpakpaln的形容词进行的首次研究得出的结论是，该语言有一个封闭的小形容词类，大约有20个成员，它们在不同程度上与名词和动词共享语法特性。与其他Mabia语言中的情况相反，Likpakpaln形容词缺少固有的类别标记。我们识别出三种类型的形容词，它们在形态句法和语义基础上可与名词和动词区分开。类型1项倾向于名词，从不充当言语从句的谓词。类型2由一项（可能是借项）组成，并以具有较大形容词类的语言所代表的谓词形容词出现。类型3形容词偏向动词，可能构成言语从句的谓词。