A grammar of Pite Saami, 2014

7 Adjectivals
Adjectivals in Pite Saami are defined syntactically by their ability to head an
adjectival phrase (AP). They can be divided into four sub-categories based on
both syntactic and morphological behavior, as summarized in Table 7.1.
Table 7.1: Summary of syntactic and morphological features for the four types of
adjectivals
syntactic
attributive adjectives attributive position within an
NP
predicative adjectives predicative position (complement
of årrot ‘be’)
demonstratives initial attributive position
within an NP
numerals
attributive or predicative position
morphological
no inflection (except in elliptic
constructions)
inflect for number
inflect for number & case
never inflect
While attributive adjectives generally do not inflect, in elliptical phrases in
which the head of an NP is not realized overtly, they do inflect for case and
number. Predicative adjectives are marked for number, and are morphologically
similar to nominals. Demonstratives agree in number and case with the noun
they modify. Numerals, on the other hand, are consistently uninflected. Finally,
the two types of adjectives form an open sub-class, while numerals are a closed
sub-class.
The rest of this chapter covers adjectives, demonstratives and numerals as follows:
§7.1 provides a description of attributive adjectives, while §7.2 deals with
predicative adjectives, before §7.3 takes up the formal relationship between these
two types. §7.4 then goes on to describe comparative and superlative forms, before
§7.5 illustrates the implementation of such forms in making comparisons.
Syntactic restrictions on the adjectives corresponding to ‘small, little’ are described
in §7.6. Quantifiers (a semantic sub-class of adjectives) are discussed in
§7.7, while demonstratives are presented in §7.8. Finally, §7.9 covers numerals.