The Adjective Class in Irabu Ryukyuan

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  • SHIMOJI Michinori
    Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

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  • 南琉球宮古伊良部島方言の形容詞

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Abstract

The aim of this study is to give the definition of the word class adjective in Irabu Ryukyuan (henceforth Irabu), a north-west variety of Miyako Ryukyuan. It is well known among Ryukyuan linguists that Miyako Ryukyuan has a wide range of word forms that encode an 'adjectival' meaning, i.e. the compound form with the formal noun munu, the reduplicated form, and the inflected form, all of which have been referred to as 'adjectives' based on their semantic characteristics. Based on both language-internal criteria (morphosyntactic criteria) and typological criteria (functional criteria, i.e. cross-linguistically recurrent function of adjective), I will show that the reduplicated form is the only candidate for the adjective class in Irabu, contrary to the traditional view on 'adjectives' in the literature where the reduplicated form has always been treated as a secondary or special kind of adjective.

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