Igbo adjectives as morphophonologized relatives

Abstract

Igbo adjectives are semantically, syntactically and morphophonologically derived. Underlyingly, they are relatives that are phonologized into a suppietive form. For this reason they cannot occur in predicative position, unlike adjectives in English. They are in two sets: the relative, polar set, which can be emphasized and further suppleted, and the non-relative, antipodal or taxonomic set, which cannot be emphasized, except perhaps by way of ideophonic periphrasis. Non-emphatic adjectives are also often ambiguous because of their inevitable incorporation of two copulas, one stative and neutral, the other active and cognate. One implication of all this is that 'Adj' is not a primitive syntactic category in Igbo and as such is not needed for its formal description. Another is that on the basis of formal behavioural criteria, a proper census of true adjectives in Igbo can now be taken.