Unearthing adjectives in Wolof: Lexical categories and typological implications

Abstract

It is widely assumed that Wolof lacks adjectives, encoding property predicates as verbs (e.g., ñuul ‘be black’). This paper argues instead that these property predicates are derived from an underlying adjectival category. Evidence comes from a relative construction restricted to property predicates, whose optional nonintersective and noncontrastive semantics are characteristic of attributive adjectives. Building on Baker’s (2003b) seminal proposals for Choctaw and Mohawk, the analysis proposes that these predicates originate as attributive adjectives merged with the noun, but in Wolof must subsequently be embedded under the functional head Pred. The adjectival head a raises to and fuses with Pred, causing adjectives to surface as verbs. More broadly, the paper argues for the universality of both Pred and the adjective category, with crosslinguistic variation in the expression of property predicates and the availability of copulas arising from language-specific properties of their interaction.