Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-1991

Publication Title

Studies in African Linguistics

Volume

22

Issue

3

Pages

277-296

Abstract

Many West African languages lack a separate category of adjectives; Krahn and Wobé are also said to lack this lexical class. However, an examination of color terms in the Gborbo dialect of Liberian Krahn reveals a class of words which are neither nouns or verbs After describing the syntactic behavior of nouns and verbs and color nouns and verbs, it is shown that a third class of color words must be considered adjectives. The data supports proposals by Givón and Dixon that, universally, lexical categories are semantically based.

Original Publication Citation

Bing, J.M. (1991). Color terms and lexical classes in Krahn/Wobé. Studies in African Linguistics, 22(3), 277-296.

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