Adjectives and boundedness

Författare

Carita Paradis

Summary, in English

This paper examines the significance of the schematic domain of BOUNDEDNESS in

adjectives. It is proposed that boundedness in adjectives is a fundamental characteristic

associated with gradability. Cross-categorial correspondences are made to nouns and

verbs, where boundedness is a feature of countability and aktionsart respectively. Two

basic types of gradable adjectives are distinguished: those which are associated with a

boundary and those which are not. It is also shown that it is possible to change the

configuration of adjectives in terms of boundedness through contextual modulation.

Finally, it is demonstrated that the configuration of adjectives in terms of boundaries

may dominate their interpretation at the expense of the content proper, and the

adjectives become more like function words than content words.

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