Cover not available
Part of
Thetics and Categoricals
Edited by Werner Abraham, Elisabeth Leiss and Yasuhiro Fujinawa
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 262] 2020
► pp. 179–198

Adjectives and mode of expression

Psych-adjectives in attributive and predicative usage and implications for the thetic/categorical discussion

| Waseda University

The German psych-adjectives glücklich (happy) and traurig (sad) and their Japanese counterparts shiawase and kanashii are considered here with regard to their semantics, the hierarchy of thematic roles, and the mode of expression. The attributive usage has a semantic structure with broad focus on the entire structure, which shows a similarity to thetic judgments despite its nonpropositional status. By contrast, the predicative usage with the subject/topic as the stimulus denotes a permanent property of the entity evoking the emotion and consists of two components respectively with narrow focus, which corresponds to the double judgment of categoricals. This structure is possible owing to the property of the copulative predication that it gives the sentence definiteness, but does not give any semantic role to the arguments.

Keywords: argument structure, attribution, broad focus, copulative predication, individual-level, narrow focus, predication, predication force, psych-adjective, stage-level
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data
    • 2.1Attributive usage
    • 2.2Predicative usage
  • 3.Mode of expression and semantics
    • 3.1Contradiction with polysemy theory
    • 3.2Attribution and predication
    • 3.3Types of predication
    • 3.4Reorganization of the semantic structure
    • 3.5Implications for the thetic-categorical discussion
  • 4.Summary and prospects
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 22 July 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.262.07mur
References
Aoki, Haruo
1986 Evidentiality in Japanese. In Evidentiality: The Linguistic Coding of Epistemology, Wallace Chafe & Johanna Nichols (eds), 223–238. Norwood NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Holl, Daniel
2001 Was ist modal an Modalen Infinitiven? In Modalität und Modalverben im Deutschen [Linguistische Berichte, Sonderheft 9], Reinmar Müller & MargaReis (eds), 217–238. Hamburg: Buske.Google Scholar
Kageyama, Taro
2009 Gengo no kôzôseiyaku to jojutsukinô (Structural constraints and predication functions in language). Gengo Kenkyu 136: 1–34.Google Scholar
Kratzer, Angelika
1995 Stage-level and individual-level predicates. In The Generic Book, Gregory N. Carlson & Francis Jeffry Pelletier (eds), 125–175. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kuroda, Sige-Yuki
1972 The categorical and the thetic judgment: Evidence from Japanese syntax. Foundations of Language 9(2): 153–185.Google Scholar
Ladusaw, William
1994 Thetic and categorical, stage and individual, weak and strong. In Proceedings of SALT 4, Mandy Harvey & Lynn Santelmann (eds), 220–229. Ithaca NY: Cornell University.Google Scholar
Leiss, Elisabeth
2002 Explizite und implizite Kodierung von Deontizität und Epistemizität. Jezikoslovlj 3(1–2): 69–98.Google Scholar
Maienborn, Claudia
2003 Die logische Form von Kopula-Sätzen. Berlin: Akademie Verlag. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2011 Event semantics. In Semantics, Vol. 1 [HSK 33.1], Claudia Maienborn, Klaus von Heusinger & Paul Portner (eds), 802–829. Berlin: De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Muroi, Yoshiyuki
2016a Adjektive und Nomina – Deutsch und Japanisch im Vergleich. In Wie gleich ist, was man vergleicht?, Akio Ogawa (ed.), 240–262. Tübingen: Stauffenburg.Google Scholar
2016b Gefühlsadjektive – ihre Semantik und Konstruktion im Deutschen und Japanischen. In Akten Des XIII. Internationalen Germanistenkongresses Shanghai 2015 – Germanistik zwischen Tradition und Innovation, Band 2, Jianhua Zhu, Jin Zhao & Michael Szurawitzki (eds), 155–160. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
2020a Zustand und Eigenschaft, Subjektstärke und Salienz: Thetik-Kategorik beim Gefühlsadjektiv im Deutschen und Japanischen. In Zur Architektur von Thetik und Kategorik. Deutsch, Japanisch, Chinesisch und Norwegisch [Studien zur deutschen Grammatik 97], Werner Abraham, Elisabeth Leiss & Shin Tanaka (eds), 242–265. Tübingen: Stauffenburg.Google Scholar
2020b Semantik und Konstruktion der Gefühlsadjektive im Deutschen und Japanischen. In Form, Struktur und Bedeutung, Hiroyuki Miyashita, Yasuhiro Fujinawa & Shin Tanaka (eds), 119–234. Tübingen: Stauffenburg.Google Scholar
Muroi, Yosiyuki
Forthcoming. Detransitivität und Modalität im Deutschen und im Japanischen. Jahrbuch für Internationale Germanistik, Reihe A, Kongressberichte. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Pesetsky, David
1995 Zero Syntax: Experiencers and Cascades. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Sasse, Hans-Jürgen
1987 The thetic/categorical distinction revisited. Linguistics 25(3): 511–580. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sommerfeldt, Karl-Ernst & Schreiber, Herbert
1974 Wörterbuch zur Valenz und Distribution deutscher Adjektive. Leipzig: VEB Bibliographisches Institut.Google Scholar
Wegener, Heide
1985 Der Dativ im heutigen Deutsch. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar