Adjective

Resumen:
Una gramática pedagógica ha de recoger los conocimientos gramaticales relevantes para la educación lingüística y ha de mostrar cómo estos conocimientos permiten reflexionar sobre la lengua y utilizarla de forma más consciente en sus distintos usos sociales. En parte, estos conoci-mientos hacen referencia a las nociones de la tradición gramatical, pero consideradas desde una perspectiva funcional, es decir, en relación con el papel que tienen en el discurso. Por ello, no se trata solo de saber cómo es una forma lingüística, sino también para qué sirve y cómo se utiliza adecuadamente en distintas actividades discursivas. Esta reflexión ha de vincularse, además, a actividades de aprendizaje que muestren la relación de la reflexión gramatical con el dominio de prácticas discursivas. En este trabajo, tomaremos como ejemplo la noción de adjetivo. Examina-remos los conocimientos teóricos disponibles sobre esta noción y exploraremos cómo se usa en la enseñanza de la lengua, fundamentalmente en Educación Secundaria Obligatoria, y para ello tomaremos como referencia algunos de los libros de texto de enseñanza del castellano de mayor circulación en el ámbito estatal. Finalmente, mostraremos algunas vías alternativas de trabajo gramatical en el aula, relacionadas con el aprendizaje del uso.
Palabras clave: gramática pedagógica, adjetivo, uso reflexivo de la lengua, reflexión metalingüística.

Abstract: A pedagogical grammar needs to include the relevant grammatical knowledge for linguistic education, and it needs to show how this knowledge allow us to reflect upon the language being learned and use it more consciously in different social uses. In part, this knowledge refers to the traditional grammatical notions, but from a functional perspective; that is, in relation to
the role they play in discourse. However, a pedagogical grammar is not only about linguistic forms, but also about what they are for and how they are used appropriately in discursive activities. In addition, language forms and use must also be related to learning activities that show the links between grammatical reflection and the mastering of discursive practices. In this article, we take as an example the notion of adjective, and we examine the theoretical knowledge available about this notion and explore how it is used in language teaching, mainly in secondary education. In order to do this, we take as a reference some of the most regularly used textbooks for the tea ching of Spanish in Spain. Finally, we show some alternative ways to carry out grammatical work in the classroom with links to the learning of adjective use.
Key words: pedagogical grammar, adjective, reflexive use of language, metalinguistic awareness.

David Serrano-Dolader (Universidad de Zaragoza)

“Sobre los adjetivos ¿parasintéticos? locativos (submarino, intramuscular, interdigital)”

Nuestro estudio parte de dos premisas fundamentales:

1). La parasíntesis es un procedimiento de formación léxica peculiar, propio y diferenciado.

2). El reconocimiento de una determinada estructura parasintética debe apoyarse conjuntamente en criterios semánticos y formales, pero no en unos u otros independientemente considerados.

Partiendo de tales premisas, apoyamos el carácter parasintético de los “adjetivos locativos” del tipo submarino, intramuscular, interdigital; los cuales se caracterizan por:

1). El prefijo indica una dirección u orientación locativa.

2). Desde el punto de vista semántico, la orientación locativa se marca en relación con el sustantivo base. En submarino, la indicación locativa ‘por debajo de’ se refiere a mar, y no a marino.

3). Desde el punto de vista formal, parecería que la estructura morfológica de tales formaciones responde a la prefijación de una base adjetiva denominal: mar > marino > sub + marino.

4). Aparece un sufijo explícito, el cual es, desde el punto de vista categorial y lógico-semántico, el núcleo o determinado de la formación parasintética: en submarino, el sufijo -ino es núcleo.

5). El hecho de que la estructura interna de la formación compleja se organice en determinante y determinado, no impide considerar que -en el proceso lexicogenético- prefijo, base y sufijo se han reunido de manera conjunta, unitaria y solidaria para la génesis de dicha formación resultante.


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David Serrano-Dolader (University of Zaragoza)

“On ‘parasynthetic?’ locative adjectives (submarino, intramuscular, interdigital)”

This study is based on two main premises:

1). Parasynthesis is a peculiar and differentiated word formation procedure in its own right.

2). Any parasynthetic structure must be necessarily grounded both in formal and semantic criteria at the same time and not just in one or the other, in order to be recognised as such.

Stemming from these two premises, we support the parasynthetic character of “locative adjectives” such as submarino, intramuscular, interdigital; these are characterised as follows:

1). The prefix indicates a locative orientation or direction.

2). From a semantic viewpoint, the locative orientation is marked in relation to the nominal base. In submarino, the locative information ‘underneath' refers to mar, and not marino.

3). From a formal viewpoint, the morphological structure of these formations seems to correspond to the prefixation of a denominal adjectival base: mar > marino > sub + marino.

4). There is an explicit suffix that acts as the head or determinatum in the parasynthetic formation from a categorial and logico-semantic perspective: in submarine, the suffix -ino is the head.

5). The fact that the internal structure in the complex formation is organised in determinant and determinatum, does not mean that prefix, base, and suffix cannot be bounded together in order to create this formation in the lexicogenetic process.

Grammar is one of the fundamental subjects of study in the vast field of Persian language and literature and the study of its elements provides a good basis for research. “Adjective” is one of the parts of speech in Persian grammar and its function is to modify the noun to which it refers. Metonymy is a means of expression that is understood through argumentation and meaning comprehension. One of Saadi’s linguistic techniques is the use of beautiful adjectives and metonymies to make his poetry more attractive. This research employs a statistical approach to investigate the frequency of adjectives containing metonymy in terms of verbal structure in Saadi’s sonnets. Metonymical adjectives, as one of the elements of conversational language, play a prominent role in Saadi’s sonnets. However, Saadi’s contribution to the use of metonymical adjectives is considerably less than that of his contemporaries.

In comparison to other word classes such as nouns and verbs, Amharic possesses a minimal set of inherent adjectives. As a result, Amharic uses a set of derivational suffixes which includes am, amma to derive words mainly from nouns. The derived words function like adjectives. However, discussions of the two derived adjective morphemes –am and –amma in the literature varies. Some stated that the two morphemes are free variants i.e., without constructing distinct meanings. Others stated that am is suffixed with the meaning ‘full of the thing denoted by the noun’, ‘having in large quantity’, or ‘in good quality the thing denoted by the noun’. /amma/ is suffixed with the same meaning as the ones formed with am. The aim of this paper is to discuss first that –am resulted into a distinct meaning from –amma and second the effluvia plus –am adjective words are lexicalized to encode personality traits in Amharic. Effluvia nouns belong to a set of nouns designating body-parts, particularly bo...

In this paper I argue that, in addition to Cinque’s (2010) direct and indirect modification, there is also a third type of adjective modification, analyzed higher, at the left periphery of DP. A closed set of Serbo-Croatian (S-C) adjectives (such as pomenuti/navedeni “mentioned” and izvesni/određeni “certain”), after being merged as indirect modification adjectives, move to a structural position, where they value d-features, providing the co‑locutor with information about the referential (pomenuti/navedeni “mentioned”) or epistemic (izvesni/određeni “certain”) aspects of the denotation of an expression. These adjectives always precede other adjectives, including superlatives and comparatives, and they must bear the long, so-called “definite aspect” form. Moreover, they can serve as a barrier for left-branch and adjunct extraction in their referential/epistemic reading. Finally, these adjectives can precede short-form adjectives, a fact not previously discussed in the literature. It is concluded that there is a functional projection above S-C NPs that is sensitive to discourse properties.

Abstract—Zero derivation is a word formation process when the lexemes before and after the process, most often, when talking about clear or genuine types of zero-derivation, share the same form, display similar, expanded meaning, but belong to different lexical categories or subcategories- a characteristic conditioned by adding a zero affix to the first lexeme. Of the several types of zero derivation and the directions of this process that can be distinguished, for this paper the change from adjective to verb lexical category has been chosen to be analysed, by using the cognitive approach. The source, adjectival lexeme is zero derived in the target, verbal element and, when compared and contrasted, both lexemes are formally identical, in analytic languages, like English, but with inflectional modifications in synthetic languages, like Macedonian, displaying a lexical category change and semantic expansion. The aim of the paper is to show that cognition indeed helps in understanding ...

Prior studies have examined the association between modifying adjective placement and interpretation in second language (L2) Spanish. These studies show evidence of convergence with native speaker’s intuitions, which is interpreted as restructuring of the underlying grammar. Two issues deserve further study: (i) there are debates on the nature of native speaker’s interpretations; (ii) previous results could be explained by a combination of explicit instruction and access to the first language (L1). The present study re-examines native and non-native intuitions on the interpretation of variable order adjectives in pre-nominal and post-nominal positions, and extends the domain of inquiry by asking if L2 learners have intuitions about the order of two-adjective sequences, which appear in mirror image order in English and Spanish (faded blue pants vs. pantalones azules desteñidos). Two-adjective sequences are rare in the input, not typically taught explicitly, and have a different word order that cannot be [partially] derived from the L1 subgrammar. Two groups of non-native speakers (n = 50) and native speaker controls (n = 15) participated in the study. Participants completed a preference task, testing the interaction between word order and restrictive/non-restrictive interpretation, and an acceptability judgement task, testing ordering intuitions for two-adjective sequences. Results of the preference task show that the majority of speakers, both native and non-native, prefer variable adjectives in a post-nominal position independent of interpretation. Results of the acceptability judgement task indicate that both native and non-native speakers prefer mirror image order. We conclude that these results support underlying grammar reanalysis in L2 speakers and indicate that the semantic distribution of variable adjectives is not fully complementary; rather, the post-nominal position is unmarked, and generally preferred by both native and non-native speakers.

The subject of this paper are adjectival synthetic compounds in which the second element (head) selects the first constituent grammatically and semantically. The first constituent is anchored in the argument structure of the adjectival head. The adjectives with an argument structure can place their arguments either word externally in the form of a syntactic phrase or word internally in the form of a compound. In this paper the latter phenomenon is analyzed but also relations to word-external argument realization are considered. Specifically, the status of adjective heads as free morphemes (stems) or bound morphemes (suffixoids) is discussed. There seem to be more arguments in favor of the former solution, so the structures can be regarded as ordinary compounds rather than products of derivation. Relations between the argument realization in form of compounds or syntactic phrases are another focus of the  paper. Particularly in the case of formations with participle head correlations between the argument type (subject, object) and its ability to act as the first constituent in the adjectival synthetic compound can be found.

(Belgian Journal of Linguistics 12/2010; DOI:10.1075/bjl.25.06sas)
Classification of entities into categories can be determined based on a rule – a single criterion or relatively few criteria combined with logical operations like ‘and’ or ‘or’. Alternatively, classification can be based on similarity to prototypi- cal examples, i.e. an overall degree of match to prototypical values on multiple dimensions. Two cognitive systems are reported in the literature to underlie processing by rules vs. similarity. This paper presents a novel thesis according to which adjectives and nouns trigger processing by the rule vs. similarity systems, respectively. The paper defends the thesis that nouns are conceptually gradable and mul- tidimensional, but, unlike adjectives, their dimensions are integrated through similarity operations, like weighted sums, to yield an overall degree of match to ideal values on multiple dimensions. By contrast, adjectives are associated with single dimensions, or several dimensions bound by logical operations, such as ‘and’ and ‘or’. In accordance, nouns are predicted to differ from adjectives semantically, developmentally, and processing-wise. Similarity-based dimen- sion integration is implicit – processing is automatic, fast, and beyond speaker awareness – whereas logical, rule-based dimension integration is explicit, and is acquired late. The paper highlights a number of links between findings reported in the literature about rule- vs. similarity-based categorization and corresponding structural, distributional, neural and developmental findings about adjectives and nouns. These links suggest that the rule vs. similarity (RS) hypothesis for the adjective-noun distinction should be studied more directly in the future.

Modifiers are elements used to modify the meaning of the head of their phrase. They are optional in that they may be removed without changing the syntactic structure of the sentence in which they occur. In AGk, adjectives are typically noun modifiers, whereas adverbs and adpositional phrases (APs) are universal modifiers, since they can be used to modify any kind of head, including nouns. This paper deals first with noun modifiers, then with modification outside the NP

The adjective is a beleaguered category in biblical Hebrew grammar with many grammars of biblical Hebrew denying that the adjective is a category distinct from substantives. Within a variety of linguistic theories, the status of the adjective as a grammatical category is also debated. Cross-linguistically adjectives exhibit extraordinary variety: in some languages showing similarities to nouns, in others to verbs and in still others to both nouns and verbs. The debate concerning the status of the adjective is mirrored by the broader debate within contemporary linguistics concerning how the issue of grammatical categorisation ought to be approached. In this article, we re-examine the question of whether or not the adjective is a distinct grammatical category from the noun in biblical Hebrew. We approach the question of the status of the adjective as a grammatical category from two perspectives: morphology and syntax.

The interpretation of negated antonyms is characterised by a polarity asymmetry: the negation of a positive polarity antonym (X is not interesting) is more likely to be strengthened to convey its opposite (‘X is uninteresting’) than the negation of a negative polarity antonym (X is not uninteresting to convey that ‘X is interesting’) is. A classical explanation of this asymmetry relies on face-management. Since the predication of a negative polarity antonym (X is uninteresting) is potentially face-threatening in most contexts, the negation of the corresponding positive polarity antonym (X is not interesting) is more likely to be interpreted as an indirect strategy to minimise face-threat while getting the message across. We present two experimental studies in which we test the predictions of this explanation. In contrast with it, our results show that adjectival polarity, but not face-threatening potential, appears to be responsible for the asymmetric interpretation of negated anton...

(Natural Language Semantics 06/2010; 18(2):141-181. DOI:10.1007/s11050-009-9052-8 · 0.92 Impact Factor)
This paper provides a new account of positive versus negative antonyms. The data includes well known linguistic generalizations regarding negative adjectives, such as their incompatibility with measure-phrases (cf., two meters tall/ *short) and ratio-phrases (twice as tall/ #short), as well as the impossibility of truly cross-polar comparisons (*Dan is taller than Sam is short). These generalizations admit a variety of exceptions, e.g., positive adjectives that do not license measure phrases (cf., #two degrees warm/ cold), and rarely also negative adjectives that do (cf., two hours late/ early). Furthermore, new corpus data is presented, regarding the use of twice with positive and negative adjectives. The analysis the paper presents supposes that grammar associates gradable adjectives with measure functions – mapping of entities to a set of degrees, isomorphic to the real numbers (Kennedy 1999). On this analysis, negative adjectives map entities to values that are linearly reversed and linearly transformed in comparison with their values in the positive antonyms. As shown, the generalizations, as well as their exceptions, directly follow. Negative polarity is explained in terms of function-reversal, and non-licensing of measure-phrases is explained in terms of transformation by an unspecified value.

В данной статье обсуждается класс некоторых возникших недавно в чешском, словацком, словенском и серпскохорватском языках несклоняемых элементов в функции приименного модификатора. Эти элементы омонимичны с названиями фирм и марок (т.е. с существительными), но используются в позиции прилагательного, напр.: Duracell nagradna igra. Статья касается и других несклоняемых элементов, грамматический статус которых спорный, напр. country, nonstop, brutto. Эти разные группы модификаторов подвергаются грамматическому анализу критериями прилагательности. Результаты допускают вывод, что формируется подгруппа прилагательных, которые отличаются от обыкновенных прилагательных несклоняемостью и частично неспособностью к предикативной функции.

U radu je pokazano da postoje konteksti u kojima je ne samo moguće nego je i obavezno upotrijebiti pridjev "trudan" u obliku muškog roda. Zato se može ustvrditi da nema razloga za leksikografsku nedosljednost i uzimanje oblika ženskog roda za kanonski oblik ovog pridjeva. To treba imati u vidu prilikom izrade budućih rječnika.

This paper presents a new approach to morphological gradability, which extends existing ones to cover manifestations of gradability in nouns and multidimensional adjectives. The approach correlates between the type of categorization criterion characteristic of a given noun or adjective and its acceptability with gradable morphemes like more. A preliminary experimental study is reported that confirms the predicted correlation, and concrete directions for future research are proposed.
[To appear in: Yoad Winter and James Hampton (Eds.) Concept composition and experimental semantics & pragmatics. Springer]

Compounds of nouns and attributive adjectives have received considerable attention in various studies, with two principal issues engaging the attention of researchers. The first is the nature of the modification relation between the constituents of the compounds. The second issue, which borders on the nature of the morphology-syntax interface, is how to distinguish between noun-adjective compounds and corresponding noun-adjective phrases. This paper provides a descriptive account of the properties of Akan (Niger-Congo, Kwa) Noun-Adjective compounds. It shows that the constituents of the compounds tend to be simplex bases and that there is no restriction on the semantic types of nouns and adjectives that may occur in the compounds. There must, however, be a plausible relation between the constituents. The interpretation of the compound is shown not to be completely straightforward, because the adjectives may not retain their core adjectival semantics in the compound or there may be additional meaning components that do not emanate from the constituents or even because the compound may have to be interpreted metaphorically. Finally, given the considerable formal and semantic similarities between noun-adjective compounds and noun-adjective phrases, I show how Akan noun-adjective compounds may be differentiated from Akan noun-adjective phrases

Classification of entities into categories can be determined based on a rule – a single criterion or relatively few criteria combined with logical operations like ‘and’ or ‘or’. Alternatively, classification can be based on similarity to prototypical examples, i.e. an overall degree of match to prototypical values on multiple dimensions. Two cognitive systems are reported in the literature to underlie processing by rules vs. similarity. This paper presents a novel thesis according to which adjectives and nouns trigger processing by the rule vs. similarity systems, respectively. The paper defends the thesis that nouns are conceptually gradable and multidimensional, but, unlike adjectives, their dimensions are integrated through similarity operations, like weighted sums, to yield an overall degree of match to ideal values on multiple dimensions. By contrast, adjectives are associated with single dimensions, or several dimensions bound by logical operations, such as ‘and’ and ‘or’. In ...

In comparison to other word classes such as nouns and verbs, Amharic possesses a minimal set of inherent adjectives. As a result, Amharic uses a set of derivational suffixes which includes am, amma to derive words mainly from nouns. The derived words function like adjectives. However, discussions of the two derived adjective morphemes –am and –amma in the literature varies. Some stated that the two morphemes are free variants i.e., without constructing distinct meanings. Others stated that am is suffixed with the meaning ‘full of the thing denoted by the noun’, ‘having in large quantity’, or ‘in good quality the thing denoted by the noun’. /amma/ is suffixed with the same meaning as the ones formed with am. The aim of this paper is to discuss first that –am resulted into a distinct meaning from –amma and second the effluvia plus –am adjective words are lexicalized to encode personality traits in Amharic. Effluvia nouns belong to a set of nouns designating body-parts, particularly body-fluids. The study was conducted using the available twenty-nine body fluid designating, effluvia, nouns. Nine other body-part designating nouns are also added for control purpose. The twenty-nine nouns with the suffix am have been collected from six Amharic monolingual and bilingual dictionaries, and have been analyzed in the present study. The study identified that the adjective forms of the body-fluid designating nouns lexicalized in to describing personality trait of a person but mainly negative ones. The paper concludes that effluvia are analyzed as noun plus –am constructions and these constructions have been lexicalized from encoding adjective to that of encoding personality traits mainly negative ones.

Linguistic deconstruction is less widely considered in Persian language grammar, both in terms of structure and in terms of application. Construction patterns and grammatical rules of language are commonly repetitive and static in grammar books, while language is always in a state of transformation and experiences more and less changes in this state. It has been shown (in thirteen cases), in present study, that some of the deconstructions suggest the reader that such a consequence is inevitable in all spoken languages of the world. The definitions and the aforementioned analysis have been proposed referring to some of the most prominent Persian grammars to demonstrate more clearly that Persian adjectives have been undergone different transformations and deconstructions. However, this research has new words about adjectives-genitives or adjectives-adjectives relations, adjectives after genitives, adjectives with verifier, indicator transformation associated with adjectives, being optional or compulsory of dependent adjectives, priority of conjugative to divisional affixes, being noun or adjective of "each, each one, anyone , none of them ..." and it  proposes new findings about  the adjectives inside the verbs, transforming noun into expressive adjective, being optional or compulsory of  adjective additions, expressive adjective with or without "-er"  and the lack of some of the most popular patterns of adjective construction in Persian grammars.

Cognition is a basis of cognitive linguistics and a driving force in the noun to adjective zero-derivation. By expanding the meaning of the first lexeme, cognition enables the speaker to derive a new lexeme, and empowers the hearer to understand the semantics of the newly zero-derived element. The paper studies the process of noun to adjective zero-derivation through cognition. It studies the semantic similarity between the same-form lexemes-the source and the target lexeme, which belong to different lexical categories, one is a noun and the other is an adjective, in the case when cognition and association links enable the process of zero-derivation to take place. The research method applied here is that Macedonian nouns are taken, compared to Macedonian adjectives with the same form, but similar meaning, when it is exactly the similarity in meaning that is studied, actually, the speaker's and hearer's motivation to zero-derive an adjective from a noun. The conclusion of the paper notes that the morphological identity (derivationally) and the semantic similarity (through cognition), between the two lexemes in Macedonian, can be accompanied by inflectional suffixes for number, definiteness and gender-modifications that can be made to both lexemes. Consequently, the natural-class noun from the left is zero-derived into an adjective on the right, when, in most cases of this kind of zero-derivation, it appears in, what is originally, a two-noun phrase, in which the second remains to be a noun, while the first becomes a zero-derived adjective.

[Lead of article in lieu of abstract] Nu het geld op spaarboekjes bijna niets meer opbrengt, gaan sommigen op zoek naar alterna-tieve vormen van beleggen. Dan lonken de aandelenmarkten, met hun naar verluidt historisch bewezen mooie rendementen voor al wie beschikt over een buffertje spaarcenten en een dosis koelbloedigheid. Maar is de beurs wel iets voor een logisch denkende taalkundige? Misschien wel niet, want al die nieuwsflashes over 'beter dan verwachte' of 'slechter dan verwachte' be-drijfsresultaten leiden af. Niet alleen van het te verrichten taalkundig onderzoek – ja, dat dus ook – maar, door hun vorm, vooral van de berichtgeving zelf.

A pedagogical grammar needs to include the relevant grammatical knowledge for linguistic education, and it needs to show how this knowledge allow us to reflect upon the language being learned and use it more consciously in different social uses. In part, this knowledge refers to the traditional grammatical notions, but from a functional perspective; that is, in relation to the role they play in discourse. However, a pedagogical grammar is not only about linguistic forms, but also about what they are for and how they are used appropriately in discursive activities. In addition, language forms and use must also be related to learning activities that show the links between grammatical reflection and the mastering of discursive practices. In this article, we take as an example the notion of adjective, and we examine the theoretical knowledge available about this notion and explore how it is used in language teaching, mainly in secondary education. In order to do this, we take as a reference some of the most regularly used textbooks for the teaching of Spanish in Spain. Finally, we show some alternative ways to carry out grammatical work in the classroom with links to the learning of adjective use.
Key words: pedagogical grammar, adjective, reflexive use of language, metalinguistic awareness

Croatian constructions as Konzum nagradna igra or omega 3 masne kiseline pose a problem for traditional grammatical description, since they contain an inflected adjective between two nouns in what looks like a compound. Two analyses from the literature are presented and discarded as unsatisfactory. Construction morphology seems to offer a way out of the dilemma.

The collocation of French adjectives in the determiner phrase has long been both controversial and misconstrued within the literature (Benzitoun, 2014; Grevisse & Goosse, 2011). Though adjectives directly following nouns are considered the rule rather than the exception (Alexiadou et al., 2007; Laenzlinger, 2005), some do precede the noun and often indicate shifts in semantic interpretation of adjectives.
This paper seeks to examine the variation of adjective-noun placement in French by surveying underlying linguistic properties of the language, historical evolutions, syntactic and semantic structures, written and spoken corpora (Thuilier, 2013). This research reveals that adjective placement greater flexibility and ambiguity in placement than has been previously understood. These findings provide the basis for potential research on Twitter feeds to look at broader conclusions of contemporary language usage and language evolution.