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7.4 Comparatives and superlatives<br />
7.4 Comparatives and superlatives<br />
The comparative and superlative forms <strong>of</strong> attributive and predicative adjectives<br />
are derived using suffixes. It seems that, morphosyntactically speaking, comparative<br />
and superlative forms can be derived from all adjectives, even when a semantic<br />
restriction could lexically prevent such forms from occurring; cf., e.g., guäktegierdakap<br />
‘more pregnant’ (pit090927.07m01s).<br />
The singular comparative or superlative predicative form is identical to the respective<br />
comparative or superlative attributive form. However, the plural comparative<br />
or superlative predicative form is always marked by a suffix consisting<br />
<strong>of</strong> a single vowel (mostly -a). In many cases, the stem to which comparative and<br />
superlative suffixes are attached is identical to the stem <strong>of</strong> the positive plural<br />
predicative form, but a number <strong>of</strong> exceptions exist.<br />
Table 7.6 on the next page provides some example paradigms. To help illustrate<br />
the morphophonemic relationship to positive forms, the singular predicative<br />
adjective form is also indicated. Furthermore, the paradigms are divided into<br />
subgroupings (each marked with a Roman numeral) based on suffix allomorph<br />
patterns. The third and fifth columns in Table 7.6 provide the singular comparative<br />
and superlative adjectives (the attributive and predicative singular forms<br />
are syncretic), respectively, while the fourth and sixth columns only indicate the<br />
suffix used to mark the plural predicative comparative and superlative adjectives,<br />
respectively. Note that there are allomorphic alternations in the superlative suffix<br />
for subgroupings iii and iv.<br />
Comparative adjectives are derived in a relatively straightforward way: the<br />
suffix -p 5 is added to an adjective root. If the root has a closed final syllable, then<br />
an epenthetic vowel -u- is inserted between the root and the suffix. In predicative<br />
position, plural is always marked by a suffix consisting <strong>of</strong> a vowel; in most cases<br />
(groups i, ii and iv), the vowel is -a, but sometime it is -o (group iii). It is not<br />
clear what determines the choice <strong>of</strong> plural suffix for comparative forms. While<br />
all forms marked by -o in the corpus have a stem final -s, not all forms with a<br />
stem final -s are marked by -o (cf. nanos ‘strong’).<br />
The superlative suffix has four allomorphs. For the attributive and the singular<br />
predicative forms, the allomorph -mos is chosen when the root has a closed final<br />
syllable, as in groups iii and iv. Roots with an open final syllable have either the<br />
superlative suffix allomorph -mus or -jmus; however, it is not clear what drives<br />
the selection <strong>of</strong> these latter two allomorphs.<br />
5 Note that, in the current working orthography, the comparative suffix -p is written -b- when<br />
intervocalic, such as in plural predicative forms.<br />
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