1

Chapter ##

IDEOPHONIC ADJECTIVES

deophonic adjectives comprise a set of words that have characteristics of both
adjectives and ideophones. Like adjectives, they predicate qualities to nominal
referents, but like ideophones, they tend to indicate highly specific properties or
combinations of properties (“small size of a head”, “acidic like fermented grain”,

“small, hard, and round like a marble”). Their precise meanings are hard to pin down
without attributing the properties to referents that embody them. Also like ideophones,
they exhibit a limited number of phonological shapes, most of which are not shared by
“mainstream” lexical categories, such as nouns, adjectives, and verbs. Syntactically,
ideophonic adjectives likewise behave in ways that justify classifying them as a special
lexical subcategory. In contrast to true adjectives (##), which can appear only
postnominally in attributive function, ideophonic adjectives may be appear in an
attributive sense both prenominally or postnominally, e.g. guænguæruæΩ kuæfia ≈ kuæfia

guænguæruæΩ ‘huge, round pot’. Similar to ideophones, ideophonic adjectives may add
specificity to regular adjectives that express properties compatible with the meaning of
the ideophonic adjective, e.g. kuæfia sêrì guænguæruæΩ ‘a gungurun-big pot’. Like adjectives,
ideophonic adjectives can be used alone as predicates of equational sentences, e.g. din&yil
Jummai ye mbaækkìtaæk ‘that baby of Jummai’s is big and hefty’. Unlike adjectives,
ideophonic adjectives cannot be used nominally or pronominally. Thus, the adjective dài
‘red’ could be used nominally to mean ‘redness’ and pronominally with the clitic næ, as in

næ""!daæi poæyyuwoæ ‘the red one shattered’, whereas guænguæruæΩ could not be used
independently to mean ‘huge roundedness’ or ‘a huge round one’, e.g. *(næ)!guænguæruæΩ

poæyyuwoæ ‘the huge round one shattered’ is ungrammatical.

1. Forms of Ideophonic Adjectives

Most ideophonic adjectives have one of four phonological patterns. For reference

purposes we use nonsense forms that mirror the canonical patterns: kolkol, kololo,
kollor, kokkilok. A fifth, somewhat less regular pattern, XCvv, always ends in a long
vowel or diphthong. All patterns are monotonal, i.e. they bear all H or all L. For most
ideophonic adjectives, the choice of H or L is lexically specific, and in a few cases, tone
is the only distinction between ideophonic adjectives of different meaning. There are,
however, a fair number that can bear H or L with no difference in meaning.

The canonical patterns incorporate either reduplication or a geminate consonant. The

patterns with geminates are associated with words that do not have geminates but have
parallel syllable structure and have the semantic and syntactic properties of ideophonic
adjectives.

I

2

Some ideophonic adjectives are disyllabic, some are trisyllabic. The medial syllable

of the trisyllabic patterns always has the vowel i or u, which is epenthetic and is required
to break up CCC clusters or to separate consonants that would otherwise form an
impermissible sequence in Bole (see ## for possible and impossible Bole consonant
sequences). The basic epenthetic vowel is i, with the variant u found where the vowel of
the following syllable is u.

1.1. “kolkol” type: CVC

RED

∫il∫il

‘tiny’

fialfial

‘smooth, neat, clean’

fiolfiol

‘small, tiny’

golgol

‘small and round’

keærkeær ≠ kerker

‘short, stubby’

laæilaæi ≠ lailai

‘mildly hot (warm)’

lìulìu

‘flexible’

luæmluæm

‘warm’

nyaæmnyaæm

‘crowded, creating a hubbub’

nyomnyom

‘emaciated’

shoæmshoæm

‘sour, fermented (porridge, beer, etc.)’

shomshom

‘pointed’

sulsul

‘smooth (of surface)’

The kolkol type of ideophonic adjective consists of a reduplicated CVC syllable. The

second consonant of the reduplicated syllable is always a sonorant. The kolkol pattern is
not restricted to ideophonic adjectives. There are nouns, adjectives, and ideophones with
the same pattern, and the lexical distinction between ideophonic adjectives and other
categories, particularly ideophones, is hazy. In a phrase like keærkeær paætaæ ≠ paætaæ keærkeær
‘stubby tail(ed)’, ideophonic adjective is the proper designation—stubbiness is a property
of the tail and the phrasal syntax is typical of ideophonic adjectives (see below). On the
other hand, ngortu¥ wula taitai ‘he tied the load tightly’, ideophone seems more
appropriate—‘tightly’ specifies the manner of tying, not a property of the load.

1.2. “kololo” type: s\C

V

|

RED

da¥na¥na¥

‘large and round, tightly filled out’

go¥lÏlÏ ≠ go\lêlê

‘small and round’

mbêrêrê

‘very small and skinny’

mbu\ru\ru\

‘small (child, animal)’

me¥le¥le¥

‘lying long and stretched out

muærsu¥su¥

‘big, strong’

ngêrêrê

‘thin’

ngu\rêrê

‘small’

nja\lu\lu\

‘emaciated’

3

paærta¥ta¥

‘tall, strong, tall but not thin’

puærtu¥tu¥

‘tall, strong, huge’

sho¥ro¥ro¥ ≠ sho\ro\ro\

‘watery’

&yo\ro\ro\

‘watery’

zu¥tu¥tu¥ ≠ zu\tu\tu\

‘tiny, small, oblong’

The regular kololo pattern ends in two CV reduplicated syllables with long vowels.

Kololo ideophonic adjectives as a group are among the few words in Bole that end in
long vowels (##).

1

The first syllable is usually also CV with a long vowel, though a few

have CVr. The vowel of the first syllable is usually, though not obligatorily, the same as
that of the reduplicated syllables. Like all ideophonic adjectives, the tones are all H or all
L.

A small group of ideophonic adjectives with the kololo pattern have short vowels in

the first and second syllables (or, in one case, a short vowel in the first syllable and
diphthongs in the second and third syllables). The final vowel is long, as for kololo
ideophonic adjectives with long vowels throughout.

danana\ (cf. da¥na¥na¥ above)

‘full, filled’

mbìlaæilaæi

‘long and flexible’

&yororo\ ≠ &yo\ro\ro

‘watery’

&yululu\

‘flaccid; weak, diluted’

The monotonal kololo pattern is exclusive to ideophonic adjectives. There are a

couple of nouns—mbÏrÏrÏ ‘mud-dauber wasp’ and mbu¥ru¥ru¥ a type of large, coloful
locust—with this pattern, but these were probably originally ideophonic adjectives that
indicated properties embodied by the insects. Note that these nouns differ minimally in
tone from otherwise identical ideophonic adjectives in the table above.

1.3. “kollor” type: CVGVC, CV®CVC (® = sonorant), C

1

VC

2

iC

3

VC

4

(C

2

=

obstruent)

CVGVC

fiekkem

‘excessively short (of clothes)’

fiekkem ≠ fiikkim

‘short, referring to s.th. that could be long’

mbaækkuæm ≠ mbakkum

‘puffed out cheeks

mbaættaæm ≠ mbeæcceæm

‘heavy and fat’

poælloær ≠ pollor

‘faded, lightened from original color’

roækkoæl ≠ rokkol

‘roundish’

sìkkìm

‘sullen, angry looking’

teæcceæm ≠ teccem

‘spread, wide and soft’

1

The final long vowel is a property specific to ideophonic adjectives. Reduplication of a final syllable

does not automatically result in a long final vowel—cf. the short final vowels in the nouns, ara¥raæ ‘cashew’,

bu\fiu\fiuæ ‘Senegal coucal’, bu¥su¥su ‘a spell causing paralysis’, kude¥deæ ‘unreliability’.

4

CV®CVC

kaængaæm

‘huge’

kuæltuæm ≠ kultum

‘round and solid’

nyaæncaæΩ ≠ nyancaΩ

‘being loose, not together, feeling helpless’

tìnkìr

‘huge’

wersel

‘good-looking and cheerul’

yurfium

‘protruding (of forehead)’

zoæltoæm

‘big-eyed’

C

1

VC

2

iC

3

VC

4

∫etiker

‘excessively short (of clothes)’

baæfiìwaær

‘naked’

mbuæfiuækuæl

‘big and fat’

njifiikir

‘tiny’

pekiter

‘small and flat’

sukulum

‘having a pensive look’

takulum

‘having a pensive look’

zogilom

‘having a pensive look’

We can generalize the kollor pattern as CVCCV®

H!~!L

(® = sonorant, superscript

H"~"L = a single tone over the whole word), where the canonical pattern for kollor type
ideophonic adjectives has a geminate medial syllable, ends in a sonorant consonant, and
usually has the same vowel in the first and last syllable. All kollor ideophonic adjectives
end in a sonorant consonant.

Viewing the medial geminate as a -CC- sequence, there are two associated

complementary patterns, each of which has a sequence of two different consonants in
place of the geminate. The CV®CVC pattern has a sequence

SONORANT

+

OBSTRUENT

;

the C

1

VC

2

iC

3

VC

4

pattern has -CiC- (-CuC- when the vowel of the following syllable is

u) with an obstruent as the first consonant. The medial -i- (or -u-) is epenthetic, required
to break up the sequence of

OBSTRUENT

+C, which is normally disallowed in Bole (##).

There are a few nouns that have the geminated kollor pattern, viz. fiaæssaæn ‘worn out

thing’, fiaæssuæm (usually in biyeæ fiaæssuæm) ‘any non-slimy biye made with greens’,
tesshem ‘small amount of liquid remaining in a container’ (cf. tèccèm in the list above).
These are probably originally ideophonic adjectives. The other patterns have the look of
“normal” Bole words—many nouns and verbs have medial

SONORANT

+

OBSTRUENT

or

-CiC- sequences, many nouns end in sonorant consonants, many nouns and verbs have
all H or all L tones—but it turns out that, in presently available data, there are no words
other than ideophonic adjectives with the specific combination of both segmental and
tonal properties described here.

1.4. “kokkilok” type: CVkkiCVk, CVΩKiCVΩ, CV[lab][lab]iVCm, CVnCiVCn

CVkkiCVk

dìkkìfiìk ≠ dikkifiik ≠
deækkìfieæk ≠ dekkifiek

‘heavy’

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fiokkirok ≠ fiukkuruk

‘small and round’

kaækkìfiaæk ≠ kekkifiek ≠ koækkìfioæk

‘hard’

mbaækkìtak

‘huge and heavy’

mbukkufiuk

‘plump, round of body’

muækkuætuæk

‘huge’

paækkìtaæk ≠ pakkitak

‘small and flat’

peækkìteæk

‘broad surface’

poækkìtoæk ≠ pokkitok

‘lacking density’

soækkìtoæk ≠ sokkitok

‘light (not heavy)’

suækkuætuæk ≠ sukkutuk

‘big and strong looking but lazy’

soærkìloæk

‘uneven’

yuægguæduæk

‘protruding, esp. forehead’

zuærkuæluæk ≠ zurkuluk

‘deep but narrow’

CVΩKiCVΩ
daængìyaæΩ

‘wide, broad’

gìngìrìΩ ≠ guænguæruæΩ

‘huge and round’

zeængìleæΩ

‘tall, erect’

zengileΩ

‘long and thin’

CV[lab][lab]iVCm

kaæmpìtaæm

‘heavy’

sampiram

‘light (not heavy)’

sìppìfiìm

‘heavy’

som∫ilom

‘small and round’

sum∫ulum

‘oblong shaped’

zeæmpìteæm

‘big and tall’

zuæm∫uæluæm

‘round and long, like a sausage’

zuæm∫uæruæm

‘shaped like a corncob’

zuæmpuætuæm

‘long’

CVnCiVCn

min*yilin

‘hard, tiny, and slippery’

zuæntuæruæn

‘long and protruding’

Miscellaneous

dinshi∫ir

‘not fully ripe’

ja∫ur∫ur

‘disheveled’

lìpìndìΩ ≠ lìpìndìm

‘oversized’

fiìya¥fiuæm

‘broad, extensive’

nguæla¥ruæm ≠ ngula\rum

‘quiet demeanor due to helpless feeling’

The most common sub-pattern for kokkilok ideophonic adjectives comprises four

consonants, the second being geminate -kk- and the last being -k. In addition, there are a
small number with -gg- or with -rk- rather than -kk-. There are three complementary
associated patterns with other medial -CC- sequences and final consonants: (1) medial
-Ωg- and final -Ω; (2) a sequence of medial labials (usually -mP-, P = any labial obstruent,

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but one word has -pp-) and final -m; (3) a sequence of medial coronals (-nC- in the two
words so far found) and final -n. A few additional words have the overall “three-
syllables with a final consonant” pattern of kokkilok ideophonic adjectives, with the first
two syllables alternating

HEAVY

-

LIGHT

or

LIGHT

-

HEAVY

, but they do not fit the more

regular patterns. All regular kokkilok ideophonic adjectives have medial epenthetic
-i- (-u- if the vowel of the next syllable is u) to break up what would otherwise be an
impermissible -CCC- sequence.

The kokkilok pattern is restricted to ideophonic adjectives. There is one noun with

this pattern, toængìfioæΩ ‘red-billed hornbill’, probably originally an ideophonic adjective
referring to some characteristic of the bird.

1.5. “XCvv” type

daæraænsaæi

‘wide, broad’

dìgìza¥

‘big and broad’

dìkì∫a¥

‘dirty’

lìkìsha¥ ≠ rìkìsha¥

‘in disarray’

moæ&y&yìlo¥to¥

‘protruding (of eyes)’

po¥tìro¥ ≠ po\tiro\

‘having a wide opening, e.g. nostrils’

ruækuæ∫a¥

‘in great quantity, esp. food’

saælfiìnaæi

‘slippery, slick’

saæmpìnaæi

‘insipid tasting’

Ideophonic adjectives of the XCvv pattern, like other patterns, are monotonal

(mostly"L). Their primary charactistic is a final long vowel or diphthong. Assuming that
these comprise a single class, their root structure is more variable than that of other
classes of ideophonic adjectives. Classifying words of XCvv structure is also somewhat
less clear than for other ideophonic adjectives. Saælfiìnaæi and saæmpìnaæi might be better
considered to be adjectives, ruækuæ∫a¥ might be better considered an ideophone,

2

and

taækìsha¥ ‘falling with a splash’ (not included here), though it has XCvv structure, seems
to function as an unequivocal ideophone (##), e.g. peæten gaæ jo\ so¥re gaæ ga¥ pa¥li
taækìsha¥ ‘he came out running and fell into the puddle splash’.

2. Syntax of Ideophonic Adjectives

2.1. Attributive modifiers. Two structures are available for ideophonic adjectives as
attributive modifiers:

NOUN

"(næ)"

ID

"

ADJ

or

ID

"

ADJ

+

NOUN

. The former construction is

identical to that of nouns with attributive adjectives (##), though there is a tendency for
the linking næ to be present when the modifier is an adjective and a tendency for it to be
absent when the modifier is an ideophonic adjective. As with adjectives, the linking næ
becomes the coda of a preceding CV syllable, and that syllable has Falling tone if it was

2

Used prenominally, saælfiìnaæi and sàmpìnài name the property of the adjective, e.g. saæmpìnaæi dìbênoæ

‘insipidness of dates’, and ruækuæ∫aæ cannot be used prenominally, e.g. *ruækuæ∫a¥ tÏshi cannot mean “food
abundance” as would be predicted were ruækuæ∫a¥ a regular ideophonic adjective. See §2.1.

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originally H. Also as with adjectives, if næ is not present, Low Tone Raising (LTR—##)
does not apply to the postnominal modifier. Blockage of LTR could be interpreted as the
effect of the L tone of an underlying næ, or it may be the effect of the syntactic boundary
between a noun and postnominal modifiers in general (adjectives, numerals,
demonstratives, relative clauses), none of which undergo LTR.

The second attributive construction,

ID

"

ADJ

+

NOUN

, is not available for adjectives

(##)—pe¥tìlaæ suæ∫aæ means ‘whiteness of the gown’ (a type of whiteness), not ‘white gown’
(a type of gown). The

ID

"

ADJ

+

NOUN

construction incorporates no linking morpheme and

DOES

induce LTR on the following noun, e.g. /wersel ± ìdo/ ‡ [wersel ido] ‘bright-

eyed’. Although a prenominal ideophonic adjective seems to be interpreted as a modifier
of the noun, there is a meaning difference between the two attributive constructions using
ideophonic adjectives, e.g. ìdo]n wersel means something like ‘eyes that are bright’
where wersel ido means something like ‘bright-eyed(ness)’. What is of primary
importance, however, is that in either construction, the ideophonic adjective expresses an
attribute of the noun—the reverse in ordering does not reverse the meaning relationships.
In the examples below, we do not attempt to distinguish meanings between the
constructions (but see below for discussion of noun phrases containing ideophonic
adjectives as arguments of verbs).

NOUN

"(næ)"

ID

"

ADJ

ID

"

ADJ

+

NOUN

ko¥yi golgol ≠ ko¥yôn golgol

golgol ko\yi

‘small, round head’

pataæ kerker

kerker pata

‘short, stubby tail’

la¥woæ ∫il∫il

∫il∫il la\woæ

‘tiny child’

duæmpo yurfium ≠ duæmpo]n yurfium

yurfium duæmpo

‘protruding forehead’

mìfii me¥le¥le¥ ≠ mìfiôm me¥le¥le¥

me¥le¥le¥ mìfii

‘stretched out python’

koæm nja\lu\lu\

nja\lu\lu\ ko]m

‘emaciated cow’

kuæfia guænguæruæΩ

guænguæruæΩ kuæfia

‘huge, round pot’

soæwwoæ ja∫ur∫ur

ja∫ur∫ur sowwoæ

‘disheveled hair’

sumbu ∫etiker

∫etiker sumbu

‘small buttocks’

uænti po¥tìroæ

po¥tìro¥ uænti

‘wide nostrils’

dìbênoæn saæmpìnaæi

saæmpìnaæi dìbênoæ

‘insipid dates’

One type of noun allows a special construction with ideophonic adjectives. In

NOUN

+

NOUN

genitive constructions, body part terms ending in -o and having final LH

tone pattern delete -o and insert epenthetic -i (##). These same nouns can undergo the
same change with an ideophonic adjective as a postnominal modifier. This construction
induces LTR on the ideophonic adjective and is equivalent in meaning to the

ID

"

ADJ

+

NOUN

construction rather than

NOUN

"(næ)"

ID

"

ADJ

construction, which is, of course,

also available for these nouns (see the example with dùmpo ‘forehead’ in the table above
and the example ìdo ‘eye’ in the paragraph preceding the table). In a related variant
construction, the noun ko¥yi ‘head’ has a bound form ko, which can be used with a
following ideophonic adjective.

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duæmpo

duæmpi yurfium

≠ yurfium duæmpo

‘protruding forehead’

ìdo

ìdi wersel

≠ wersel ido

‘bright eyes’

kuæmo

kuæmu pakkìtaæk

≠ paækkìtaæk kuæmo

‘broad flat ears’

uædo

uædi nyancaΩ

≠ nyancaΩ udo

‘misaligned teeth’

uædi nyancaæΩ

≠ nyaæncaæΩ uædo

” ”

ko¥yi

ko som∫ilom

≠ som∫ilom ko\yi

‘little round head’

This special construction is available only for nouns have have the special bound

forms illustrated in the table above. It does not apply to any nouns other than body parts,
and it does not apply to body parts that do not have the form LH-o—cf. uænti po¥tìroæ ‘wide
nostrils’ (< ùnti) or sàra pàkkìtàk ‘broad, flat hand’ (< sàra) with no change in the noun
and non-application of LTR on the ideophonic adjective. The construction also is not
available for adjectives. Phrases like *ìdi dài < /ìdo dài/ ‘red eyes’, *kuæmi gaæraΩ <
/kuæmo gaæraΩ/ ‘long ears’ are ungrammatical.

Another construction collocating ideophonic adjectives and nouns has the form

ID

"

ADJ

"gà"

NOUN

. This seems to be restricted to phrases where the body part is a noun and

the ideophonic adjective expresses some negative characteristic appropriate to that noun.
The construction is used in abuse.

zuæntuæruæn gaæ bo¥

‘protruding mouth’

guænguæruæΩ gaæ ko¥yi

‘large, round head’

yuægguæduæk gaæ ko¥yi

‘head protruding in the forehead’

Noun phrases that include ideophonic adjectives as nominal modifiers can function as

arguments of verbs, but only in the

NOUN

"(næ)"

ID

"

ADJ

construction.

næ konu\ kulaæ soækkìtoæk but *næ konu\ soækkìtoæk kulaæ

‘I picked up a light calabash’

næ ndolu\ aætti &yo\ro\ro\ sa but *næ ndolu\ &yo\ro\ro\ atti sa

‘I don’t like watery atti’

goæjju\ mo\taæn sum∫ulum but *goæjju\ sum∫ulum mo\taæn

‘he bought a long, round-looking car’

me¥muæ muærsu¥su¥ kaæccutu¥ goæggoæ but *muærsu¥su¥ me¥muæ kaæccutu¥ goæggoæ

‘a huge man blocked the road’

aætti &yo\ro\ro\ aæjÏ nzuæfieæ but *&yo\ro\ro\ aætti aæjÏ nzuæfieæ

‘the watery atti is spilling’

The

ID

"

ADJ

+

NOUN

construction can function as a noun phrase in a sentence where it

stands as a description more or less on its own.

mbaækkuæm bo¥ maænaæ bo¥ am buæya alge\taæ

‘puffed out face like the face of an algeta player’

soæm∫ìloæm ko¥yi maænaæ fiinsa

‘a little round head like an egg’

This distributional difference between the two constructions follows from the

meaning difference. We suggested that the

ID

"

ADJ

+

NOUN

construction has the sense of a

compound incorporating the noun into the overall sense of the ideophonic adjective

9

(“bright-eyedness” for the

ID

"

ADJ

+

NOUN

construction vs. “eyes that are bright” for the

NOUN

"(næ)"

ID

"

ADJ

construction). A sentence like næ konu\ kulaæ soækkìtoæk would thus mean

‘I picked up a calabash (that felt) lightweight’, whereas *næ konu\ soækkìtoæk kulaæ would
have to mean something like *“I picked up light-weighted calabashness”. Used as a
more less isolated reference rather than a specific argument of a verb, however, the
phrase could evoke a general property applying to some entity.

2.2. Ideophone-like modifiers with adjectives and statives. As well as being direct
attributive modifiers of nouns, ideophonic adjectives may function more like regular
ideophones by adding properties to nominal modifiers, including both adjectives and
statives derived from verbs (##). There is, however, a difference between true
ideophones used as modifiers of adjectives and verbs and ideophonic adjectives used in a
similar way. In the case of a true ideophone used with an adjective, e.g. maænshi lukup
‘very old, old as the hills’, the ideophone expresses degree, intensity, or the like of the
adjective itself. Ideophonic adjectives, on the other hand, express additional properties of
the noun, albeit properties somehow associated with the adjective with which they are
used. Thus, in the examples below, sets of two or three expressions include the same
adjective (fioæle ‘small’, gaæraΩ ‘tall, long’, sêrì ‘big’) or stative (fioæwa-nì ‘seated’ <

fiowu ‘sit down’, ruækkaæ-nì¶-to ‘thin’ < ruækku ‘become thin’), but differing ideophonic
adjectives associate different sets of properties with the referents while not changing the
base meaning of the adjective or stative. Note that adjectives do not induce Low Tone
Raising in a following ideophonic adjective, e.g. in the first example below LTR does not
apply to yield *paætaæ fioæle kerkeær.

Used with adjectives

paætaæ fioæle keærkeær

‘small short and stubby tail’

la¥woæ fioæle ∫il∫il

‘small tiny child’

daæ&ya musuær ye la¥ fioæle min&yilin

‘the necklace bead is small (as well as) hard and shiny’

Maduæ gaæraΩ paærta¥ta¥

‘Madu is tall (as well as) well-built’

∫oæltu\ bila\laæ gaæraΩ lìulìu

‘he cut a long, flexible whip’

gaæram me¥le¥le¥

‘long and stretched out (like a long snake or a rope)’

kuæfia sêri guænguæruæΩ

‘big large and round pot’

me¥muæ sêri teæcceæm

‘the man is big (as well as) broad of beam’

Used with verb-derived statives

AÁdo fioæwanì sìkkìm

‘Ado is seated sullenly’

fioæwanì takulum

‘he is seated pensively’

koæm ruækkaænì mbêrêrê

‘the cow is thin and undernourished’

la¥woæ soæruttu ruækkaæto nyomnyom ‘and the girl fell thin from being starved’

aæwo ngoæmanì da¥na¥na¥

‘the stomach is full to the top (“filled danana”)’

2.3. Predicate adjectives, subjective complements, and objective complements. Like
adjectives, ideophonic adjectives can be used as predicates in equational sentences (##)

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and as subjective and objective complements of nouns in various verbal constructions
(##). In the latter case, where the verb has some substantive meaning, the ideophonic
adjective may sometimes be interpreted as an ideophonic modifier of the verb, e.g. in the
last example under “Subjective complements”, kaækkìfiaæk could plausibly be saying
something about how the fruit dried rather than the fruit itself. Such ambiguous contexts
undoubtedly serve as a mechanism to create the sometimes vague boundaries between
lexical categories mentioned elsewhere.

Predicate of equational sentence

aætti ye sho¥ro¥ro¥

‘the atti is watery’

zottoæto ∫etiker

‘her wrapper is too short’

kulaæ eme\ sokkitok

‘this calabash is light-weight’

ìdi zoænge zoæltoæm

‘the hyena’s eyes were huge’

&yaæla ye sÏras sa, la¥ dinshi∫ir

‘the millet is not full grown, its heads are short’

Subjective complements

suæ∫aæ ko\reæ êjÏnì poælloær

‘the indigo gown has become faded (pollor)’

suæ∫aæ sêri ye ê lìpìndìΩ

‘the gown is excessively big’

la¥woæ kuære¥fiì ye peæten zengileΩ ‘the small snake came out long and thin’

mbormi poæ&&u\jÏnì kaækkìfiaæk

‘the ebony fruit has dried up (becoming) very hard’

Objective complements

oæssa&y &yaæla nyaæncaæΩ

‘she ground the flour to a coarse consistency’

zuæma\ konnì sulsul

‘he shaved his head smooth’

kuæmta\ aæmma luæmluæm

‘he heated the water (to become) warm’

Following from the use of ideophonic adjectives in main clauses is the fact that they

may be predicates in postnominal relative clauses.

kuære¥fiì la¥ me¥le¥le¥

‘a snake that is lying stretched out’

gowna\ gaæ ka\ri la¥ ngêrêrê

‘he hit me with a stalk that was long and thin’

njilna\ lo la¥ njifiikir

‘he cut me (a piece of) meat that was very tiny’