Catalan
Page 13
She gave a brilliant speech.
Adjectives which would normally be postposed by the principles given above often precede nouns in poetry or similar registers. The effect of this inversion of the usual order is to supply specially emphasized or emotive information:
Vénen la flota i el fibló//i del fantàstic horitzó … (J. Alcover)
There comes the fleet and the tornado, and from the fantastic horizon …
Conserva de ses branques l’eterna primavera. (Μ. Costa)
It retains the eternal spring of its branches.
Sol i de dol i amb vetusta gonella …
(J.V. Foix) Alone and grieving and wearing an ancient tunic …
Prenominal position of an adjective is nonetheless impossible in three cases:
(i) With attributive adjectives equivalent to a de + noun phrase complement of the head noun, of the kind la vida de família = la vida familiar ‘family life’.
equip ministerial (= equip del ministeri) *ministerial equip ministerial team
món universitari (= món de la universitat) *universitari món university world
cerimonial eclesiàstic (= cerimonial de l’església) *eclesiàstic cerimonial church ceremonial/ecclesiastical ceremonial
parc automobilístic (= parc d’automòbils) *automobilístic parc car fleet
tècniques discursives (= tècniques del discurs) *discursives tècniques discourse techniques/discursive techniques
(ii) With restrictive-specifying adjectives:
He trobat una pedra groga.
*He trobat una groga pedra.
I found a yellow stone.
Fes l’examen amb un bolígraf negre.
*Fes l’examen amb un negre bolígraf.
Do the test with a black ballpoint.
No vull tractes amb gent impuntual.
*No vull tractes amb impuntual gent.
I don’t wish to deal with unpunctual people.
(iii) With an adjective that has itself a degree modifier, or a complement. Thus while un famós cantant ‘a famous singer’ may occur in appropriate circumstances, neither *un força famós cantant nor *un famós pels seus discos cantant is possible. It must be un cantant força famós ‘a very famous singer’, un cantant famós pels seus discos ‘a singer famous for his recordings’.
In the case of a few adjectives, position before or after the noun they modify is associated with a distinct meaning difference. In line with what we have seen above, the preposed adjectives tend to be figurative or evaluative, the postposed ones, specifying.
grans personesgreat people persones gransold/adult people
la pobra famíliathe poor family (= which inspires pity) la família pobrathe poor (= needy) family
un simple oficinistaa mere clerk un oficinista simplea simple-minded clerk
una trista històriaa sorry tale una història tristaa sad story
la pura casualitatsheer chance la casualitat purachance alone
un cert interèsa certain (amount of) interest un interès certa definite interest
un vell amican old friend (= of many years) un amic vellan elderly friend
la mateixa ideathe same idea la idea mateixathe idea itself
Notice that when standing as predicates these adjectives can only have the sense seen in the postposed modifiers: La família era pobra ‘The family was poor (= needy)’. The above differences in meaning are not necessarily identifiable in every case. Una gran distància ‘a great distance’ means the same as una distància gran and, in fact, the former is more usual.
The adjectives mal and dolent ‘bad’ have essentially the same meaning; mal occurs only before a noun; dolent occurs after, and in predicate position: una mala proposta = una proposta dolenta ‘a bad suggestion’. The adjective bo ‘good’ (bona (f.), bons (m.pl), bones (f.pl.) irregularly has a special form bon for the masculine singular when it precedes a noun: un bon dinar ‘a good lunch’, but un dinar bo.
Bo, dolent, petit, gran for gros)
All these very common adjectives follow the noun when they are restrictive, indicating objective quality. Preceding the noun, they usually express a subjective evaluation.
(objective)
Va ser després que van venir els maldecaps grossos.
It was later that the big headaches came.
Porta la plata petita.
Bring the small serving dish.
(subjective)
Ens ha sortit una petita dificultat.
We’ve come across a minor difficulty.
És un gran escriptor/mentider.
He is a great writer/liar.
It is to be observed that gros is preferred to gran (both meaning ‘big’/‘large’) when what is referred to is physical volume:
Porta la plata grossa, (preferable to la plata gran)
Bring the large serving dish.
Aquestes caixes grosses no ens cabran aquí.
We won’t be able to fit those large boxes in here.
4.2.2 NOUNS WITH MORE THAN ONE ADJECTIVE
Two basic patterns are observed when a noun is complemented by two adjectives:
(i) when both adjectives carry equal weight they are normally joined by the conjunction i and are positioned together, either before or after the noun, according to the principles explained in 4.2.1.
Això obeeix a la més rigorosa i ineluctable lògica.
This conforms to the strictest, most inescapable logic.
Més enllà es distingien uns edificis miserables i raquítics.
Further away some sordid, rickety buildings could be made out.
El senador féu una intervenció contundent i decisiva.
The senator made a sharp, decisive intervention.
Tot plegat formava un quadro de desbridada i sorollosa alegria.
The whole scene was one of unbridled, noisy merriment.
The conjunction may be suppressed to give separate emphasis to each adjective:
Penso en aquelles converses animades, interminables, que fèiem al Casino.
I have in mind those lively, endless conversations we used to have in the Casino.
(ii) When one of the two adjectives is restrictive this will take its usual position after the noun, with the non-restrictive adjective preceding the noun. Note that in English it is the absence of the comma that indicates this relationship between the adjectives:
els poètics paisatges pirinencs
the poetic Pyrenean landscapes
Era filla d’un obscur advocat provincià.
She was the daughter of an obscure provincial lawyer.
Se sentí un desconcertant xiscle agut.
A disconcerting shrill scream rang out.
This pattern is sometimes broken by tan used to introduce the nonrestrictive modifier placed after the first (restrictive) one:
Agraeixo aquestes paraules introductòries tan simpàtiques. = Agraeixo aquestes simpàtiques paraules introductòries.
I am grateful for those kind opening words.
When the restrictive adjective and noun are so closely allied as almost to form a compound noun, a second adjective qualifying the quasicompound noun phrase usually follows, producing thereby a kind of mirror image of the normal English word order:
un estudi sobre la poesia italiana contemporània
a study on contemporary Italian poetry
l’empresa privada francesa
French private enterprise
More than two adjectives
When a noun is qualified by more than two adjectives these are distributed according to the principles explained in (i) and (ii) above. If all the adjectives carry equal weight they go together either before or after the noun:
Van explicar-se amb la pura, tradicional i primitiva senzillesa de Thome del camp.
They spoke with the countryman’s pure, traditional, primitive simplicity.
Em va semblar un personatge complex, neuròtic i violent.
He struck me as a complex, neurotic, violent character.
&nbs
p; If a noun + adjective quasi-compound is involved other qualifying adjectives invariably precede:
Hi va haver una sola, trista i insegura veu discrepant.
There was just one sad, hesitant, dissident voice.
Departure from the norm in the positioning of adjectives may be determined by subjective considerations of style. This is particularly true of poetry, but it also applies to prose and to diverse speech registers. In general, the more unusual the positioning of the adjective, the more the writer/speaker wishes to draw attention to it or secure for it an other than purely literal value:
Alguns arcs, algunes columnes, inscripcions borroses, sepulcres destrossats, mutilades estàtues, semblen les restes d’un gran naufragi, les desferres d’una immensa i cataclísmica tempesta.
Some arches, some columns, faint inscriptions, shattered tombs, mutilated statues, looking like the flotsam of a great shipwreck, the debris of an immense, cataclysmic storm.
4.2.3 GENDER AGREEMENT OF ADJECTIVES WITH COORDINATED NOUNS
When a combination of more than one noun of different genders occurs, an attributive or predicative adjective will appear in the masculine plural form:
Els plàtans i les peres ja són madurs. (*Els plàtans i les peres ja són madures.)
The bananas and pears are ripe now.
autopistes amb accessos i sortides adequats
motorways with adequate approaches and exits
Hi havia cotxes de cavalls i carrosses molt ben guarnits.
There were finely decorated horse-drawn coaches and carriages.
(Hi havia cotxes de cavalls i carrosses molt ben guarnides means that only the carriages were finely decorated.)
However, when two coordinated nouns are very close in meaning, an attributive adjective may be used in the singular, agreeing in gender with the nearer: fàstic i repulsió instintiva ‘instinctive disgust and revulsion’.
4.2.4 COMPLEMENTS OF ADJECTIVES
Many adjectives can have a complement which is a prepositional or infinitive phrase. The complement is normally introduced by de:
orgullosa de les seves obres proud of her works
atacs difícils de suportar attacks hard to endure
cadires cobertes de pols chairs covered in dust
Va restar malalta del cor. She suffered from a heart condition.
Certain adjectives may have a preposition other than de with their complement, e.g. content amb ‘happy with’ (content de is also used), fidel a ‘faithful to’:
Estàvem contents amb el professor/del professor.
We were happy with the teacher.
un gos fidel al seu amo
a dog faithful to its master
A finite sentential complement of an adjective has, in the standard language, no introducing preposition before the complementizer que (see 32.3–5):
Està orgullosa que el seu fill estudiï per al doctorat.
She is proud that her son is studying for a doctorate.
Pronominalization of adjective phrases by ho, en, or hi is discussed in 12.5, 12.6vi, and 12.7iv respectively.
4.2.5 ADVERBIAL USE OF ADJECTIVES
An adjective may appear in predicate position, that is, after a verb and ostensibly qualifying that verb, for example: Ho mirava tota preocupada ‘She was looking at it quite worriedly’. Although formally the adjective here expresses a characteristic of the subject (as is confirmed by the number-gender agreement), the communicative effect is virtually the same as that of an adverb modifying the verb, and the English equivalent is often an adverb:
Els antics competidors avui es tracten benèvols (approximately = benèvolament).
The former competitors nowadays behave in a kindly way towards each other.
Ell sempre actuava recelós (approximately = recelosament).
He always behaved apprehensively.
En aquesta casa elles dues vivien tranquil·les (approximately = tranquil·lament).
In this house the two of them lived at peace.
See also 13.1.2.
4.2.6 TRANSLATING THE NEGATIVE PREFIX ‘UN-’
Catalan has a negative prefix in-, which is used with adjectives and generally coincides with English adjectives taking negative ‘in-’: increïble ‘incredible’, inseparable ‘inseparable’, innombrable ‘innumerable’, etc. However, Catalan does not replicate the frequency with which adjectives in English can be given a negative sense with ‘un-’. For some words in- corresponds to ‘un-’: inimaginable ‘unimaginable’, intocable ‘untouchable’, insociable ‘unsociable’, inintel·ligible ‘unintelligible’, indigne ‘unworthy’, irreal ‘unreal’, indesitjable ‘undesirable’. The dictionary must be consulted to see whether a form with in- exists, as they cannot be created at will. Where the in--’un-’ match is not allowed, equivalents have to be formed with anti- (occasionally), or, more regularly, with poc, no, or sense:
antinatural unnatural
antieconòmic uneconomic(al)
poc convincent unconvincing
poc profesional unprofessional
poc atractiu unattractive
poc favorable unfavourable
poc freqüentat unfrequented
poc intel·ligent unintelligent
no retornable non-returnable
no autoritzat unauthorized
sense principis unprincipled
sense llegir unread
sense provar untried
sense obrir unopened
etc.
5 COMPARISON
Traditional grammars often have a section on ‘the comparison of adjectives and adverbs’, but it is by no means only adjectives and adverbs that participate in comparative constructions. Here our discussion and examples will take a broader view, looking in general at how Catalan expresses concepts like ‘more … than’, ‘less/fewer … than’, ‘as (many/much) … as’, ‘the more … the more’, ‘most’, ‘least’, and so on.
The first term of a comparison, the element compared, can be a noun, an adjective, an adverb, a prepositional phrase or a clause: més sucre que no acostumo a posar-hi ‘more sugar than I normally use’, tan fondo com el mar ‘as deep as the sea’, menys fàcilment que no creus ‘less easily than you suppose’, més a la dreta que això ‘more to the right than that’, T’estima més que no penses ‘She loves you more than you think’. The quantifiers or degree words in comparisons are més ‘more’, menys ‘less’, ‘fewer’, tan ‘so’, ‘as’, tant ‘as much/many’. There are synthetic comparative forms of certain adjectives (see 5.2.1). Com, in comparisons of equality, and que (no (pas)), de, and del que in comparisons of inequality are the pivots introducing the standard of comparison. The standard of comparison–the complement of ‘than’ in English–may be an element from a wide range of categories: a noun (més ample que el Nil ‘wider than the Nile’), a pronoun (menys feliç que tu ‘less happy than you’), an adjective (més genial que segur ‘more ingenious than reliable’), an adverb (menys que mai ‘less than ever’), a complement clause or infinitive (millor que no pas que els n’informem nosaltres ‘better … than that we should inform them’, més que no deixar-Phi ‘more than lending it to him’), a relative clause (més estrany del que creuries ‘stranger than you would credit’), and so on. Notice that whereas English may optionally include a verb in the standard of comparison, Catalan avoids doing this where the verb would be the same (and in the same tense) as one already mentioned.
5.1 COMPARISON OF EQUALITY
Equality is normally expressed by the terms tan … com ‘as … as’/‘so … as’, tant/tanta … com ‘as much as’, tants/tantes … com ‘as many … as’, or igual de … que ‘just as … as’. Tant is a quantifier pronoun, or an adjective which takes gender and number agreement (and which may be used pronominally). As a degree adverb tan is used when it precedes what is qualified; tant is used elsewhere (see 13.6). That is to say, tan occurs before an adjective, an adverb, or an adverbial prepositional phrase.
No n’he menjat tant com en volia, (tant quan
tifier pronoun)
I didn’t eat as much (of it) as I wanted.
Vendré tantes parcel·les com podré.
I will sell as many plots as I can.
Té tants amics francesos com jo en tinc d’alemanys.
She has as many French friends as I have German ones.
No són tan llestos com es pensen, (tan degree adverb modifying llestos)
They are not so clever as they think.
M’agradava tant com l’altre. (tant degree adverb modifying m’agradava)
I liked it as much as the other one.
In the following examples, observe, as mentioned above, that Catalan avoids repeating a verb in the standard of comparison, where English may repeat the verb or substitute an auxiliary.
El teu fill ja és tan alt com tu. ? … com tu ets/… com ets tu
Your son is already as tall as you (are).
L’edifici és tan alt com llarg.
The building is as tall as it is long.
He viatjat tantes vegades a Àfrica com a Àsia.
I have travelled to Africa as often as (I have travelled) to Asia.
Ningú no llegeix tant com ell.
Nobody reads as much as he (does).
S’ha comprat un pis igual de vell que el que ja tenia.
She has bought a flat just as old as the one she had before.
S’aixequen igual de prest que quan feien feina a la fàbrica.