View source for Possessives with Adjectives

This section illustrates the interesting interaction between modification morphology and the possessive suffix.

Possessive pronoun clitics can attach to any of the words in a string of noun-modifications. 

  <i>wiin <b>es</b> faaxu we</i>		‘the my good people’
  people my good Det
  <i>wiin faaxu <b>es</b> we</i>
  people good my Det

  <i>rew <b>es</b> daduk xoju mosu we</i>       ‘the five thin beautiful women’
  women my five thin beautiful Det
  <i>rew daduk <b>es</b> xoju mosu we</i>
  women five my thin beautiful Det
  <i>rew daduk xoju <b>es</b> mosu we</i>
  women five thin my beautiful Det
  <i>rew daduk xoju mosu <b>es</b> we</i>
  women five thin beautiful my Det

  <i>ataaya fañaayu <b>es</b> fe</i>		‘the my spicy tea’
  tea spicy my Det
  <i>ataaya <b>es</b> fañaayu fe</i>				
  tea my spicy Det

  <i>ataaya <b>es</b> ñyaayu ke</i>		‘the my spicy teas’
  teas my spicy Det
  <i>ataaya ñyaayu <b>es</b> ke</i>
  teas spicy my Det

  fañiik <b>es</b> fambarʄu fe		          ‘the my ugly elephant’
  fañiik fambarʄu <b>es</b> fe


The possessive clitic can even occur on multiple of the modifiers, as well as to the noun itself:

  fañiik <b>es</b> fambarʄu famaak <b>es</b> fe	  ‘the my ugly big elephant’		
  fañiik fambarʄu <b>es</b> famaak fe			
  fañiik fambarʄu famaak <b>es</b> fe			

  pañiik <b>es</b> parʄu maak ke 		  ‘the my ugly big elephants’
  pañiik parʄu <b>es</b> maak ke
  pañiik parʄu maak <b>es</b> ke						

  pañiik <b>es</b> parʄu maak saƭku <b>es</b> ke‘the my ugly big strong elephants’

  xa nafad <b>es</b> xa lakas <b>es</b> axe	‘the my other shoes’

When this happens, in some word-final phonological environment there is contraction of the possessive clitic:

  ojafes oɗomu le				‘the my painful leg’
  ojaf odom<b>es</b> ole 
  ojaf odom<b>s</b> ole

There are some modifiers for which the possessor clitic attachment cannot occur:

  fideles sumu fe				‘the my hot fire’
  *fidel sumes fe

It is unclear to how many modifiers the possessive can attach before it stops being odd or unacceptable to the speaker. A threshold test definitely shows that a possessive on ALL modifiers is unacceptable, but any combination more than just two is not as clearly unacceptable:

  rew es daduk es xoju mosu we		‘the thin beautiful women’
  rew daduk es xoju mosu es we
  ?rew es daduk es xoju es mosu we
  #rew es daduk es xoju es mosu es we


Back to: [[Adjectives]]