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7 Adjectivals<br />
7.1 Attributive adjectives<br />
Attributive adjectives form the head <strong>of</strong> an AP modifying the head <strong>of</strong> the matrix<br />
nominal phrase, and are normally not subject to inflectional morphology. As<br />
part <strong>of</strong> an attributive AP, an attributive adjective occurs before the head noun it<br />
modifies, but after a demonstrative, if present (cf. §11.2 on the structure <strong>of</strong> NPs).<br />
Examples are provided in (1) through (3).<br />
(1) dat<br />
d-a-t<br />
lä<br />
lä<br />
tjähppis båtsoj<br />
tjähppis båtsoj<br />
ja<br />
ja<br />
villges<br />
villges<br />
be\3sg.prs black reindeer\nom.sg and white<br />
dem-dist-nom.sg<br />
åjjve<br />
åjjve<br />
head\nom.sg<br />
‘It is a black reindeer and a white head.’<br />
[pit100405b.043]<br />
(2) guolle’l<br />
guolle=l<br />
nåv<br />
nåv<br />
fish\nom.sg=be\3sg.prs so<br />
‘Fish is such tasty food.’<br />
(3) dat<br />
d-a-t<br />
villges<br />
villges<br />
dem-dist-nom.sg white<br />
‘that white reindeer’<br />
njalga bäbbmo<br />
njalga bäbbmo<br />
tasty food\nom.sg<br />
båtsoj<br />
båtsoj<br />
reindeer\nom.sg<br />
[pit100310b.025]<br />
[pit090930a.014]e<br />
As the head <strong>of</strong> an AP, attributive adjectives can be modified by adverbs <strong>of</strong><br />
grade, as illustrated by the AP hoj buorak ‘really good’ in (4), or nåv njalga ‘so<br />
tasty’ in (2) above.<br />
(4) ja<br />
ja<br />
dat<br />
d-a-t<br />
lä<br />
lä<br />
årrom<br />
årro-m<br />
and dem-dist-nom.sg be\3sg.prs be-prf<br />
‘And it has been a really good summer.’<br />
hoj<br />
hoj<br />
really<br />
buorak giesse<br />
buorak giesse<br />
good<br />
summer\nom.sg<br />
[pit080909.009]<br />
A number <strong>of</strong> adjectives end in -s (cf. the two adjectives tjähppes ‘black’ and<br />
villges ‘white’ in (1)), which is <strong>of</strong>ten considered an ‘attribution’ marking suffix<br />
in the literature. 1 However, as njalga ‘tasty’ in (2) illustrates, not all adjectives<br />
1 Rießler (2011: 215–228) deals in detail with this final -s, which is common to all <strong>Saami</strong> languages.<br />
Rießler claims that it was grammaticalized from a 3sg possessive suffix, and originally only<br />
marked the attributive form <strong>of</strong> adjectives. However, note that Rießler also points out that<br />
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