Adjectives as a lexical category
A story of striving for extension
I argue that prepositions and adjectives form one lexical category (labeled for convenience PAd), such that prepositions are its light
members in the way light verbs (be, become, cause) are members of the verbal and
taxonomic nouns (place, person, event) of the nominal category. While the opposition
between nouns and verbs is based on an ontological restriction, modelled as the value of the classifier feature, PAd is characterized by
the inability to establish reference, i.e. by an unvalued classifier feature. Surface asymmetries between traditional adjectives and
prepositions are discussed and either refuted or explained away in terms of the proposed differences in the richness of lexical semantics
and the underlying structural differences.
Keywords: adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, classifier feature, intension, extension, light verbs, taxonomic nouns, lexical categories, semantic ontology, grammatical construct
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Open and closed classes, conceptually rich and light members
- 3.Adjectives and adverbs spell out underlying PPs
- 4.Lexical categories and reference
- 5.Differences between adjectives and prepositions
- 6.Explanations, predictions
-
Acknowledgements
-
Notes
-
References
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