Verbal Characteristics of Adjectives in Hakha Chin

Abstract

This paper will present a few items of interest regarding adjectives in the Tibeto-Burman language Hakha Chin, which has approximately 165,000 speakers worldwide (Simons and Fennig, 2018). Using Fiona Mc Laughlin’s methodology of comparing adjectival verbs and non-adjectival verbs in Wolof (Mc Laughlin, 2004), data will be presented comparing adjective and verb structures in Hakha Chin in an intransitive predicate construction, in a comparative construction, in a superlative construction, in questions, in negative constructions, and in relative clauses. This data will establish adjectives in Hakha Chin as being more verb-like than noun-like, and will place Hakha Chin in adjective class I, category 1, according to the classifications set by Robert Dixon (Dixon, 2004). This paper will conclude with a brief discussion of the role that adverbs may play in the adjectival verb phrases of Hakha Chin.