Spanish Loanwords in the Degree Paradigms of Tagalog Adjectives

Abstract

The paper aims to analyze adjectival paradigms of degree in Tagalog as influenced by Spanish. The subject appears to be of interest to the researchers of language contact with Spanish, as the contact-induced changes in the Tagalog grammar are still understudied. The impact of Spanish borrowings on the whole system of degrees in Tagalog adjectives has not yet received any particular attention. Following the approach by I. Melchuk, the paper offers descriptions for both the adjectival paradigm of intensity category and comparison category in Tagalog. The impact of Spanish borrowings in these two paradigms are analyzed based on the Leipzig Corpus of Tagalog. It is shown that Spanish-derived moderative marker medyo and elative markers masyado and sobra have contributed considerably to the inventory of the intensity paradigm of Tagalog. In the comparison paradigm which includes comparative, superlative, equative, and also attenuative degree forms, Spanish comparative marker mas has been shown to prevail, while pareho has been adopted as a new equative degree marker (infrequent). Along with the native relator sa, two Spanish-derived relators kaysa and kumpara sa are part of the Tagalog comparison inventory. Finally, it is suggested that the use of mas as a double-marker in comparison of inequality may indicate a tendency to grammaticalization of mas towards a general “comparison of inequality” marker.