Thursday, May 04, 2006

The Qualitative Adjectives in Modern Khmer

Title : The Qualitative Adjectives in Modern Khmer
Author : CHOM Sonnang
Degree : Master in Linguistics
Intitution : Royal Academy of Cambodia
Advisor : Dr. NUV Sun
Head of Committee : Dr. Prum Maol
Defend : July 2003

ABSTRACT

Khmer Adjective has been an objective of research study of both local and foreign researchers. It is, however, still unclear if there is adjective in Khmer language.
This study was aimed to find out the right answer to the absence or presence of adjective in Khmer language. More than 3328 words, which labeled as adjective, are from Khmer dictionary, and nearly 300 sentences, contained those kind of word, are selected from papers, novels, and short stories. The data was analyzed in the aspect of Morphology, Syntax and Semantic.
The study found that Khmer adjective is a kind of word which has many functions in the syntax. Its multi-function led some researcher to assume this kind of word as verb. But according to this study, adjective has its special categories that separate this kind of word from others, especially verb. Khmer adjective, in function of modifier, has ya:ng (superlative and comparative particle), dor (superlative particle), ceang (comparative particle) , krai (superlative particle) as its property. Other kinds of words, function as modifier, this particles can not be added. The study also reveals that doubling adjective, in a function of modifier, expresses the plural of noun that it modifies.

Key word: Adjective, function, absence, present, comparative particle.

Contact:
snang_inl@yahoo.com

1 comment:

PucAngkor said...
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