Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics.pdf

Dictionary of language and linguistics 20apple’; OE ‘good king’ vs se eorl ‘the good earl.’ Syntacticallyspeaking, they can be used predicatively or attributively, but not all adjectives cannecessarily fulfill both of these latter functions: There are adjectives which can be used(a) attributively as well as predicatively (red, big, new), but are not gradable (dead,single) or (b) only attributively (the former president vs *The president is former). Thereis a certain semantic similarity between adjectives and adverbs (e.g. to write legibly. alegible hand); both parts of speech modify the element they are connected to (noun, verb)with respect to particular characteristics. If this characterization is implicitly or explicitlybased on a certain norm (as in big, small, thick), one speaks of relative or relationaladjectives. For numeric adjectives, numerals. For hierarchies between variousadjectives, cf. Posner (1980).ReferencesBartsch, R. and T.Vennemann. 1972. Semantic structures: a study in the relation betweensemantics and syntax. Frankfurt. (2nd edn 1973).Bhat, D.N.S. 1994. The adjectival category. Amsterdam and Philadelphia.Bierwisch, M. 1967. Some semantic universals of German adjectivals. FL 3. 1–36.Bierwisch, M. and E.Lang (eds). 1989. Dimensional adjectives: grammatical structure andconceptual interpretation. Berlin.Bolinger, D.L. 1967. Adjectives in English. Lingua 18. 1–34.Ferris, C. 1993. The meaning of syntax: a study in the adjectives of English. London.Hellan, L. 1981. Towards an integrated analysis of comparatives. Tübingen.Posner, R. 1980. Ikonismus in der Syntax: zur natürlichen Stellung der Attribute. ZSem 2. 57–82.Rusiecki, J. 1985. Adjectives and comparison in English. London.Schachter, P. 1985. Parts-of-speech systems. In T. Shopen (ed.), Language typology and syntacticdescription. Cambridge. Vol. 1, 3–63.Vendler, Z. 1968. Adjectives and nominalizations. The Hague.Warren, B. 1994. Classifying adjectives. Göteborg.adjective phraseSyntactic category ( phrase) which has an adjective as its head and which can bemodified by an adverb of degree (really small, fairly bright, very beautiful) or acomplement (tired of war, proud of an achievement).