Mirad Grammar/Adjectives

Adjectives

Adjectives, which are words that modify nouns, can be of the following types and subcategories:

• descriptive

• qualitative, like iva (happy), fia (good), oga (small)
• denominal ( ~ noun-derived), like doma (urban) < dom (city) or teaba (ocular) < teab (eye)
• deverbal ( ~ verb-derived), (participles) like tejea (living) < tejer (to live) or twa (known) < ter (to know)
• preposition-derived, like aba (upper) < ab....on top of or zoa (posterior) < zo (behind)

• determinative

• deictic ( ~ demonstrative, indefinite), like hia (this), huyena (such), haewa (both)
• numeric, like awa (one), ea (second), iona (triple)
• quantitative, like ga (more), glo (few), gra (too much)
• pronominal ( ~ possessive), like ata (my), hota? (whose), hyeta (anyone's)

Descriptive adjectives are the main focus of this section. Determinative adjectives (determiners) behave differently and are discussed under Determiners. Deverbal adjectives, usually referred to as participles, are treated in the section on Verbs, since they are formed from verbs. Pronominal determiners (i.e. possessive adjectives) are treated under both the section on Determiners and the section on Pronouns.

All descriptive adjectives end in the adjectival marker vowel a.

• fi- (qualitative root base word) ⇒ fia....good
• pur (noun meaning vehicle) ⇒ pura....vehicular
• dalw- (passive stem of the verb speak) ⇒ dalwa....spoken
• ab (preposition meaning on) ⇒ aba....superior

Such adjectives precede the noun or noun phrase they modify:

• aga tam....a big house
• ha fia toyb....the good woman
• ata boka twed....my sick father
• fia telsyeb bi vafil.....a good bottle of wine
• yata dooba doof....our national flag
• ata tejea tyedi.....my living relatives

doba xeut....state agent can also be expressed as the noun compound dobxeut. Dob means a state.

pata bok....avian illness can be compounded as patbok, literally bird illness.

Note: Compounded nouns often have an idiomatic meaning not exactly equal to their separate parts. More about this in the later section on vocabulary-building.

Comparison of Adjectives by Degree

As in English, descriptive adjectives can be modified by degree. To do this, a quantitative determiner of degree (ga, ge, etc.) is placed before the adjective, producing positive / negative comparative, equalitative, superlative, and other degree expressions as in the following table. The quantitative determiners themselves that are used in these comparative expressions are discussed in detail in a later section on Quantitative Determiners.

Comparison of Adjectives by Degree

QUANTITATIVE DETERMINER	COMPARISON
ga....more	ga fia (vyel)....better (than)
ge....as, equally	ge fia (vyel)....as good (as)
go....less	go fia (vyel)....less good (than)
gla....very	gla fia....very good
glay....so	glay fia....so good
gle....rather/quite	gle fia....rather/quite good
glo....not very	glo fia....not very/slightly good
gra....too	gra fia....too good
gre....enough	gre fia....good enough
gro....not enough	gro fia....insufficiently good/not good enough
gwa....most	gwa fia (bi, be)....best (of, in)
gwe....average	gwe fia....good on average
gwo....least	gwo fia (bi, be)....least good (of, in)

The relative conjunction vyel is used to translate English as in an equalitative comparison or than in a non-equalitative comparison. Examples:

• Ata tam se ga aga vyel etas.....My house is bigger than yours.
• Hia tam voy se ge aga vyel atas.....This house is not as big as mine.
• His se ha gwa aga tam bi yata yubem.....This is the biggest house in our neighborhood.

Unlike in English, where comparative forms can be irregular (smaller, more intense, better), there are no exceptions in the comparison of Mirad adjectives and adverbs.

Abstract Quality Nouns Derived from Adjectives

Nouns referring to abstract qualities can be derived from qualitative and often other adjectives by suffixing the letter n. For example:

Deriving Abstract Nouns from Adjectives

ADJECTIVE	ABSTRACT QUALITY
fia....good	fian....goodness
yeva....just	yevan....justice
uja....final	ujan....finality
joga....young	jogan....youth
teyda....maternal	teydan....motherhood, maternity
dooba....nation	dooban....nationality
tojbuwa....lethal	tojbuwan....lethality

Reversing the Semantics of Adjectives

Descriptive adjectives can be negated by prefixing the vowel o. This has the effect of English un- in words like unlike, unhappy, and undetermined or the Greek private prefix a(n)- in words like asymmetric or anomalous.

Prefixing the syllable lyo has an even stronger semantic effect. It denotes the polar opposite of the adjective.

In cases where the o- creates an ambiguous word, lo- is substituted. Note this in the last two words of the following chart:

Reversing the Semantics of Adjectives

NORMAL	NEGATED
ega....normal	oega....abnormal
twa....known	otwa....unknown
geyla....similar	ogeyla....dissimilar
iva....happy	oiva....unhappy
data....friendly	odata....unfriendly lyodata....inimical, enemy-like
fwa....wanted	lofwa....unwanted (ofwa means prohibited < ofer (prohibit)
ofwa....unprohibited	oofwa....unprohibited

Adjectival Derivational Endings

All descriptive adjectives end in at least the suffix a. Many adjectives are derived from other parts of speech, using one of more of the following derivational endings.

Adjectival Derivative Endings

ENDING	TRANSITION TYPE	MEANING	BASE WORD	DERIVED ADJECTIVE
-a	N->ADJ	relating to, of	fyaat....god tob....man dom....city	fyaata....divine toba....human doma....urban
-aya / -ika	N->ADJ	full of, -ful, -ous	mil....water meb....mountain tes....meaning	milaya....watery, aquaous mebika....mountainous tesaya....meaningful
-oya / -uka	N->ADJ	empty of, -less, -free	teb....head level....sugar tes....meaning	teboya....headless leveluka....sugar-free tesoya....meaningless
-yena	N->ADJ	like, -ish, -y	fyaat....god tob....man dom....city	fyaatyena....godly, godlike tobyena....manly, virile domyena....urbane
-ea	V->ADJ	-ing, -ent, -ant	ags-....grow tej-....live kyas-....change	agsea....growing, crescent tejea....living, alive kyasea....changing, variant
-yea	V->ADJ	-ive, tending to	dal-....talk tox-....forget vad-....affirm	dalyea....talkative toxyea....forgetful vadyea....affirmative
-wa	V->ADJ	-ed	dal-....talk tox-....forget vad-....affirm	dalwa....spoken toxwa....forgotten vadwa....affirmed
-oa	V->ADJ	-about to, apt to	toj-....die kyes-....happen tajb-....give birth	tojoa....moribund kyesoa....imminent tajboa....about to deliver
-ua	V->ADJ	-able, potentially V	tojb-....kill bukx-....harm akuj-....succeed	tojbua....lethal bukxua....dangerous akujua....potentially successful

Pronominalization of Adjectives

Adjectives can be pronominalized (converted to a pronoun) by adding s for things and t for persons. These, in turn, can be pluralized by suffixing the plural marker i.

Pronominalization of Adjectives

ADJECTIVE	INANIMATE PRONOUN (THING)	ANIMATE PRONOUN (PERSON)
fia....good	fias....a good thing fiasi....good things	fiat....a good person fiati....good persons
aga....big	agas....something big agasi....big ones	agat....a big person agati....big persons
joga....young, new	jogas....something new, novelty jogasi....new ones	yogat....young person, youth yogati....youngsters
jaga....old	jagas....antique jagasi....old ones	jagat....elderly person jagati....oldsters
awa....one ewa....two	awas....one (of them) ewasi....two (of them)	awat....one (of them) ewati....two of them
hia....this	hias....this one hiasi....these (things)	hiat....this one hiati....these
gla....much, many	glas....a lot (of stuff) glasi....many (things)	glati....many (people)

Examples:

• Hia tyoyaf se gro aga. At fu ga agas.....This shoe is not big enough. I'd like a bigger one.
• Yat fu daler bay ha gwa jogati.....We would like to speak with the youngest ones.
• At fe teaxer ha jogas, voy ha jagas.....I want to look at the new one, not the old one.
• Ha ujnati so ha ijnati.....The last shall be the first.