Antonyms formed with negative prefixes Adjective as a complement of a noun or an indefinite pronoun

8.62 ni mi jari- ki jaŋ tɕhe kho-p-e lha u-ko man some-ERG CONTR2 DETERM 3PL-PL2-GEN god that-head QUAL ga ɕ-ɕo ta mem-pet. TE54 be.pleased-SUP EMPHP NEG-COP ‘Actually some men say, “Now I realize that their god is not very good.”’ There is no comparison at all in this illustration. 8.63 nepal d ʑaakak-ki ŋuu juŋ-s-e lam gaɕ-ɕo tɕik nepal kingdom-GEN silver come-ground-GEN trail be.pleased-SUP INDF nepal luŋp-e la-roŋ khajet bet. TE87 nepal country-GEN mountain-hill plural COP ‘The mountains of Nepal are a very good way to bring money to Nepal.’ Speaker tells how Nepal earns a lot of money from trekkers and mountaineers. Table 8.3. Summary of derivational suffixes that produce adjectives from verbs and nouns Original word class: N Original word class: V Derivational suffix Morpheme gloss N V -pu ADJVZR; homophone of M1 N V -pokma ADJVZR V -pøtma ADJVZR N -puwa ADJVZR N -netmu, -etmu ADJVZR V -ntikma ADJVZR V -ntija ADJVZR V - tɕetma ADJVZR V - ntiŋma ADJVZR N V -mu ADJVZR; homophone of F1 N V -løt ADJVZR N V -si INTNS V - ɕo SUP V -tu COMP1 N V -paa, -jaa, -aa, -a COMP2 N V - tɕe ADJVZR, in negated clauses The following derivational suffixes are also inflectional: - si, -ɕo, -tu, and -paa.

8.6 Antonyms formed with negative prefixes

Lhomi has antonym pairs such as goodbad and poorrich but often the language uses the negative prefix mat- to form an antonym. The negative prefix mit- is never used for marking an antonym. The following example illustrates some pairs of antonyms. 8.64 t ɕhuka tɕik-ni tɕhu ɕim-paa thaŋ water.place INDF-ABL water attach.to-COMP2 and mat- ɕim-paa mit-thøŋ-ken bet. NEG-attach.to-COMP2 NEG-come.out-NMLZ;CONJ AUX ‘Tasty water and not tasty water do not come out from the same water place.’ When an adjective is negated in this way it makes the reference more generic. Lhomi is a language which has a lot of specifics but not so many generic nouns and adjectives. This is a way not to specify the exact meaning of the antonym. 8 .65 ŋ-e tam hi-la khit khanʈa-la 1SG-GEN message this-DAT 2PL what-DAT mat-ga-a laŋ-kuk=ka? NEG-be.pleased-COMP2 feel-PROG;VIS=Q ‘Why do you feel not happy about this message of mine?’ The antonym of good ga-a in this example is mat-gaa. The negated adjective is a predicate complement here. 8 .66 aku tshiriŋ-ki roo-raŋ-ki phitsa tɕuŋ-aa di-le uncle tshiring-ERG 3SG-self-GEN child small-COMP2 DEF-COMP.BASIS t ɕhi-jaa di-la mat-tɕii-paa tɕhik-kuk. great-COMP2 DEF-DAT NEG-love-COMP2 do;VBZR-PROG;VIS ‘Uncle Chiring shows more dislike to his elder child than to his younger one.’ In other words, the father loves his younger child more. Yet it is perfectly natural to say it the way this illustration has it.

8.7 Adjective as a complement of a noun or an indefinite pronoun

Typically an adjective follows a noun or a pronoun which it modifies. However, it may also occur preceding a noun or an indefinite pronoun and then it is marked in genitive case. The following examples illustrate this. 8.67 u-p-e mat- tsaŋ-aa-ki ʈhaŋ that-PL2-ERG NEG-spike-COMP2-GEN everything t ɕhik-ken bet. do;VBZR-NMLZ;CONJ AUX ‘They do all kinds of morally not pure deeds.’ COMP2 is a derivational operator which produces an adjective from a noun or a verb. 8.68 ga-a-ki tam ɕøk-kuk. be.pleased-COMP2-GEN message speak-PROG;VIS ‘He is speaking a good message.’

8.8 Predicate adjective marked by -t