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2.3.2.4 Nominalisation and ellipsis (adjectival inflection)
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Nominalised and elliptical adjectives behave like attributive adjectives with regard to number, gender and case inflection. Some examples of nominalised adjectives are:

1
do Litje un do Grote. ‘The little and the great ones (i.e. people).’ - ’n Dütsken. ‘a German.’ - Hie ron as ’n Moalen. ‘He was running like a crazy (person).’ dät Swäite an ju Seke ‘the nice part of the matter’

An example of an elliptically used adjective is: two Autos, een groot un een littjet ‘two cars, a large one and a small one’. (Note: dät Auto is neuter.)

Some original adjectives have become lexicalised as nouns, e.g.:

2
Nu kuud die Pastoor uk noch mäd Doden balle. ‘Now, the priest was also able to speak to the dead’

As a result, both do Düütske and do Düütsken ‘the Germans’ are fine in Saterland Frisian.

Some (apparent) nominalised adjectives are loans from Low or High German, e.g. do Gefangenen ‘the prisoners’. Other nominalised adjectives have undergone semantic bleaching (or meaning specification), e.g. do Oolden ‘the parents’, dät Fergene ‘the past’, die Swäite ‘the kiss’ (lit. ‘the sweet’). Nominalised adjectives are nouns, not adjectives. See: inflection, conversion.

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