METHODS OF FORMATION OF ADJECTIVES (Second part)

It is widely observed that relational adjectives (RAdjs) in English can be coerced into qualitative adjectives (QAdjs) rather freely ( Farsi 1968 ; Beard 1991 ; Bauer et al. 2013 ; Nikolaeva & Spencer 2013 ; Lieber 2015 ). However, the process of coercion and its output properties have not been studied extensively. This paper presents a conversion analysis of the process and discusses how it is effected in the grammar and how converted QAdjs differ from non-converted suffixal ones, such as similatives. The analysis considers the working of the truthfulness operator within a class name NP. Clearly demarcating different adjective classes, the findings of this paper contribute to research on both conversion and RAdj.

This paper presents a corpus-based study of English denominal adjectives in -like. Starting with semantic aspects, including the relationship between N-like and like an N, it then reports on the productivity of -like adjectives by discussing the kinds of nouns to which -like is added, along with the distributions of individual formations in the Bank of English corpus. It next draws attention to the marked collocational patterns in which -like adjectives occur. These relate both to sets of items collocating with individual -like adjectives, and to subsets of -like adjectives collocating with individual nouns. There are implications in these bidirectional collocational patterns, it is argued, for studies of productivity and lexicalization: in particular that collocational constraints may exist at the level of morpheme, not just at the level of word or phrase.

In academic writing, certain near-synonymous adjectives are commonly found, among which are critical and important. This study aims to analyze the unique and shared patterns of these two near-synonyms in academic discourse and general use. In the British Academic Written English (BAWE) Corpus, both adjectives modify nouns such as point, method, and data. However, each has its individual uses: only critical modifies lure, path, and period, and only important modifies element, thing, and implication. However, the collocation patterns are somewhat different in a reference corpus. In the British National Corpus (BNC), critical modifies scrutiny and evaluation, while important modifies implication and consequence. The two adjectives behave differently in the two registers. By comparing the unique uses of a word in a specialized corpus, one can explore its regular patterns. Such patterns could be contrasted more clearly by comparing to a reference corpus. We argue that the collocation analysis from a reference corpus may need to be accompanied by a specialized corpus for the understanding of the vocabulary of a specialized field.

Two studies demonstrate that children have knowledge of scalar distinctions between three sub-classes of gradable adjectives: relative (big, long), absolute with a maximal standard (full), and absolute with a minimal standard (spotted). Performance on these adjectives is compared with controls (shape, color, mood). Children appropriately shift the standard of comparison with context-dependent, relative gradable adjectives, and do not do so for the others. Reasons for non-adult-like performance with full are discussed. Evidence is presented that children know about the presuppositions of singular definite descriptions, suggesting that children as young as three have an accurate semantic representation of the.

The semantic structure of paired English adjectives is investigated, and the results are extended—or an extension of the result is suggested—to the vast lexicon of derived English adjectives. It is found that English adjectives are not semantic primitives, but rather are semantically based upon or derived from nouns or verbs. Categories of noun-based vs. verb-based adjectives are set up, and then contrasted with the categories of stative vs. active adjectives. It is claimed that the facts of semantic structure of English adjectives support the presence of lexical or pre-lexical transformations which map the deep semantic structure onto the surface lexical items called adjectives.

"The English grammar is an important tool for those who want to learn this language correctly. Although Modern English – especially the one used in social media - has suffered many modifications, abbreviations and even incorrect usage of English, Standard English should be taught correctly by following its grammar rules. Understanding its grammar rules and using them in practice helps students achieve a satisfying level of English knowledge. The English adjectives represent an important part of speech because they offer information about the colour, the shape, the quality and the dimension of an object, an animal or a human being. A sentence without one or more adjectives is a simple one and therefore it does not express and it does not offer many details about the noun or the pronoun that it refers to: e.g. I saw a car. / I saw a brand new, modern, red car. The adjective has the power to enrich the meaning of our written or oral messages. The adjective helps the reader who is the one who receives of the message to make himself a clear view of the thing/ being that is described or mentioned in our communication. According to statistics, English adjectives represent one of the most used word classes accompanying the noun or pronoun that they determine. Moreover, the English adjective does not have to agree in gender or number with the noun that it describes. Those who are studying English as a foreign language can distinguish, quite simply, a noun from an adjective. The noun names the thing, object or being, while the adjective adds a positive or a negative trait, offering characteristics to the noun: e.g. a bad man, a tragic accident, a stressful situation, an ungrateful woman, a disgusting smell ( in these situations the adjectives offer negative traits to the nouns that they determine) e.g. a good man, a wonderful place, a beautiful flower, a loving mother, a peaceful room, a respectful woman (here the adjectives offer positive traits to the nouns). Therefore, the importance of the adjective in English is crucial because this part of speech characterizes and offers detailed information related to the thing/ person we refer to (either noun or pronoun)"

This study aims to test the extent to which 80 Kuwaiti EFL learners are aware of prenominal adjective ordering system in English, particularly how it affects Kuwaiti EFL learners’ grasp on English grammar. In addition, it checks whether the English proficiency level of the participants plays a role in their answers on the test. Therefore, a prenominal adjective ordering test was used to measure the participants’ ability to produce the correct order of prenominal adjectives in English. This research instrument was chosen on the basis of the researchers’ belief that this type of test leads to uncovering the causes beyond the correct/wrong answers provided by the participants on the test. Following data analysis, the results reveal that Kuwaiti EFL learners may not be fully aware of the prenominal adjective ordering system in English (total mean=48.75%). The t-test shows that the English proficiency level of the participants plays a crucial role in the production of prenominal adjectives in English. In particular, there is a statistically significant difference between the answers of the advanced (65%) and intermediate learners (32.5%). The number of correct answers provided by the advanced learners is higher than that provided by the intermediate learners. Regarding the types of error made by the participants, it has been argued that the most noticeable ones are due to first language (L1) negative transfer. Finally, the study concludes with some pedagogical implications and recommendations for further research.

The article offers a classification of adjective prefixes in Danish (section 3) including, among others, native and foreign prefixes (e.g. gen- and a- , respectively), genuine prefixes (e.g. aegte -) and particle prefixes (e.g. anti- ). Various definitions of prefixal derivatives have been presented in section 4, while section 5 shows examples of and discusses native and foreign negative prefixes modifying the meanings of adjectives in contemporary Danish. The adjectives in question have been analyzed with regards to their structure and the emotional load they convey. Section 6 concludes the paper and includes comments on the productivity of the prefixes in question, as well as synonymy and antonymy in their usage.

The article studies how adjectives with the meaning “useful”/”harmful” are used in political discourse. The widespread adjectives of these synonymous chains are sorted out. The author lays special emphasis on the examples of these adjectives used in their metaphorical meaning.

The study examines the personality correlates of gelotophobia (fear of being laughed at), gelotophilia (joy of being laughed at), and katagelasticism (joy of laughing at others) in the framework of the five - factor model. In a sample of 1,774 adults, gelotophobes were introverted neurotics with lower inclinations of openness. Furthermore, adjectives like shy, inhibited, and insecure were indicative for gelotophobia. Gelotophilia related to extraversion, low neuroticism and low conscientiousness. Gelotophiles could be well described by adjectives like cheerful, talkative, original, witty, and uninhibited. Katagelasticists were found to be younger males with low scores inagreeableness and conscientiousness. Adjectives like cynical and vengeful correlated robustly with katagelasticism. Results are discussed with respect to the current literature. Suggestions for future research are given.

A definition lexical classes is proposed based on the mapping between the prototypical semantic and the unmarked syntactic properties of nouns and verbs which at once captures cross-linguistic generalizations made by previous authors and at the same time explains the typological variation shown in parts of speech systems. Adjectives are the most marked class and that most susceptible to neutralization across languages, which vary with respect to whether or not a class of adjectives is present and, if not, which of the two remaining classes serve the adjectival function of unmarked modifier. Choices as to which of the criterial features of the adjectival class are active in a given language are crucial to determining the underlying shape of the lexical inventory, which in turn has important consequences for the grammar of a language, as shown by an examination of Salish, a verb-adjective conflating family of languages.

This article identifies the features of such a linguocultural phenomenon as pidginisation and creolisation on the example of African linguoculture. The scientific problem is caused by the influence of globalisation on the state of languages and cultures within the framework of intercultural and interlanguage interaction, on the one hand, and the need to preserve native languages and cultures, on the other hand. The purpose of the article is to identify the key properties of such hybrid languages as Pidgin English and Creole English which operate in the largest country in West Africa – Nigeria. The research work is based on a combination of linguistic and cultural analysis method, which revealed the peculiarities of language and culture in the process of historical development, and comparative analysis method, which is the key to distinguish similar and distinctive features of Nigerian Pidgin English in relation to British English. The research work systematised the key historical, linguistic and cultural factors that influenced the formation and Pidgin English and Creole English development in Africa, and identified its key characteristics. It was proved that English is a universal means of interethnic communication for all social groups, but Pidgin English has simple structure at all language levels – phonetic, grammatical, lexical ones – and suits for everyday communication perfectly. Adapting to local realities, Nigerian Pidgin English at the phonetic level is the subject to assimilation and dissimilation of consonants, quantitative and qualitative reduction of vowels. The grammatical structure of Nigerian Pidgin English is the subject to maximum simplification, this level is characterised by the omission of articles; the use of abstract nouns in the plural form; the formation of adjectives’ comparison degrees and adverbs on the principle of a monosyllabic adjective; the use of simple tense forms of verb. The lexical structure of Nigerian Pidgin English is characterised by the functioning of high-frequency lexemes of autochthonous languages, which is due to the desire to follow the norms of native culture. All deviations from British English are explained by the need to create an accessible form of communication for all social groups using minimal linguistic means.

This paper is intended to conduct a fairly detailed contrastive linguistic analysis of the English participial adjectives: present participle and past participle, and their Arabic counterparts, namely, ?ismulfā9il/ agentive noun or active participle, and ?ismulmaf9ūl / patientive noun or passive participle. The process of contrast will be based on morphological, syntactic and semantic criteria. The analysis carried out in the study aims at investigating and scrutinizing, and exploring and revealing any points of convergence and / or divergence in the linguistic behavior of both English and Arabic participials. The paper falls into three sections. The first section incorporates a detailed analysis of the English participial adjectives: present participle and past participle in terms of morphological, syntactic and semantic perspectives. The second section is concerned with their Arabic counterparts: ?ismulfā9il / agentive noun , and ?ismulmaf9ūl / patientive noun in terms of the above mentioned perspectives . The third section is devoted to any possible conclusion that may be arrived at through an overall contrastive analysis of both English participial adjectives and their Arabic counterparts.

[Extended abstract] This is the first detailed description of Murui (Bue variety of ‘Witoto’), a hitherto little-documented Witotoan language spoken by about 2,000 people in the Colombian and Peruvian areas of the Amazon Basin. The thesis is written following the latest theoretical requirements of modern descriptive linguistics (Dixon’s Basic Linguistic Theory). It uses extensive immersion fieldwork and participant observation as methodological techniques in the best tradition of descriptive linguistic work. Collected during several fieldtrips to the Murui communities located between the Putumayo and Caqueta rivers in Colombia (El Encanto, Tercera India, San Rafael, and San Jose) between 2013 and 2016, the linguistic data consists of an extensive corpus of texts in a variety of genres (including songs, folk tales, myths, life story narratives, narratives of traditional customs and practices, and everyday conversations), as well as field notes. In addition to the language description and analysis, the grammar also draws attention to the typological features of Murui, and sheds new light on the linguistic variation among the Witotoan languages. It is a valuable resource for further research on the linguistic affiliation of the Witotoan language family in South America. The grammar presents analyses of the phonology, morphology and syntax of the Murui language. The thesis is divided into 13 robust chapters covering specific relevant topics. These chapters are: (1) The Murui language and its speakers (sociolinguistic and genealogical information, overview of earlier work), (2) Phonology (a detailed treatment of the Murui sound system with all its complexity), (3) Word classes (an overview of open and closed word classes and their main characteristics), (4) Noun structure and classifiers (shows the central role of classifiers and repeaters in the structure of nouns and of the language in general), (5) Possession and number (on possessive constructions and the ability of nouns to be possessed), (6) Grammatical relations (the central topic in every language description), (7) Predicate structure, non-spatial, and spatial setting (a detailed presentation of predicate structure and the main categories in verbal morphology: tense, aspect, modality, evidentiality, and spatial distinctions), (8) Valency-changing mechanisms (the verbal derivational categories passive, causative, reflexive and reciprocal), (9) Adjectives and comparative constructions (on adjectives and strategies of comparison), (10) Negation (types of negation, clausal and non-clausal), (11) Commands and questions (imperatives and command strategies, types of questions), (12) Sentence types and clause linking (the structure of complex sentences, types of independent clauses), (13) Discourse organization (clause linkage, structure of narratives, focus, the influence of Spanish). Additionally, there is an elaborate list of relevant literature references, and a sample of five fully analysed illustrative texts with glosses and translation, including the origin story of the Murui people.

This study was aimed at finding out: (1) the types of grammatical errors in narrative writing made by eleventh-grade students of one private Islamic senior high school Palembang, South Sumatera, Indonesia and (2) the most frequent type of grammatical errors in narrative writing made by eleventh-grade students of private Islamic senior high school Palembang, South Sumatera, Indonesia. This study was a descriptive qualitative research. The data were collected from narrative writing written by the 32 eleventh grade students. In this study, grammatical items analyzed were covering noun, pronoun, verb, conjunction, adjective, adverb and preposition. In analyzing students’ errors, some procedures of error analysis were applied. They were identification, description, and explanation. The frequencies of errors were calculated in percentages. Based on the result of the analysis, there were 621 grammatical errors found in students’ narrative writing. Errors in using verb became the most frequent type of errors with 308 errors (49.59%), followed by errors in pronoun with 136 errors (21.90%), in adjective with 87 errors (14.00%), in preposition with 61 errors (9.82%), in noun with 13 errors (2.09%), in conjunction with 10 errors (1.61%) and the last errors in adverb with 6 errors (0.96%).