Questions tagged [adjectives]
Words that describe or modify a noun or noun phrase.
86
questions
1
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2answers
94 views
Linguistic term for using masculine adjectives in front of feminine/plural nouns for emphasis in a language that has grammatical gender
Adjectives in languages that have grammatical gender have to be in agreement with the nouns they modify. In Classical Arabic, however, some adjectives were commonly used in their base form (masculine ...
2
votes
1answer
124 views
What are the pros and cons of having adjectives appear first?
In the English, we say:
Red apple
Red is an adjective. apple is a noun. Red tells us that, well, the apple is red.
In other languages, such as Arabic, it is the other way around. I.e.:
تفاحة ...
0
votes
1answer
63 views
If adjectives denote functions of type <<e,t>,<e,t>>, then what denotation of *be* will allow adjectives to appear in predicative position?
Suppose [[gray]] = λf ∈ D<e,t> . [λx ∈ De . f(x) = 1 and x is gray]. Since this function is of type <<e,t>,<e,t>>, it would seem that sentences like Julius is gray are ...
8
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3answers
558 views
Did Proto-Indo-European put the adjective before or behind the noun?
Did PIE put the adjective behind the noun (like Romance languages usually do) or before the noun (like Germanic languages)?
1
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0answers
69 views
Are these "phrases" or "clauses" before a noun a modifier adjective?
In these clauses or sentences "I love those "I love you" messages" or "I hate those "I love you" messages",
Is this "phrase" or "clause", &...
1
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0answers
23 views
What do you call the range of possible subjects a word can be predicated of
What do you call the range of possible subjects a word can be predicated of?
i.e., brown can be predicated of furniture but not numbers; running can be predicated of people but not rocks; fruitless ...
3
votes
1answer
75 views
Origin of describing emotions with adjectives associated with taste
You might have seen that most of the adjectives that are related to taste are used to describe emotions.
Salty, sour, sweet, bitter etc. We use these adjectives to describe people and their emotions.
...
-2
votes
1answer
133 views
What does Potrefená mean in Czech? [closed]
There is a restaurant chain in the Czech Republic called the Potrefená Husa. Husa in Czech is Goose, but I can't find a meaning for Potrefená in any of my usual sources (Google Translate, dict.cc, ...
3
votes
1answer
88 views
Pronominalized adjectives in Lithuanian
This is a question for those who are native speakers of Lithuanian or have a very good proficiency in Lithuanian as a second language. As for your feeling, are the definite or pronominalized ...
2
votes
0answers
26 views
Historical development from adjective to concrete noun to more abstract noun
I'd really appreciate any knowledge or advice on further reading about the following. Excuse my naivete- I am at the start of this investigation.
I'm studying an historical corpus and I have found a ...
3
votes
1answer
56 views
Are there any studies on marked adjective order in the NP in head initial languages like Spanish or Albanian?
For example, Spanish unmarked NP order is Noun-Adjective ("libro rojo", "casa grande"). However, there are many situations where the order is reversed ("un rojo atardecer", "es un buen libro", "tienes ...
2
votes
1answer
62 views
Is there any language that has different morphology for individual-level and stage-level adjectives?
For example, the language might be such that a a stage-level adjective like "available" would agree in predicative position, but an individual-level adjective like "intelligent" would not.
0
votes
1answer
74 views
What grammatical features should we assign to the Danish superlative forms -st and -ste?
When entering Danish lexemes into Wikidata, I have been unsure which grammatical features one should assign to the Danish superlative forms "-st" and "-ste" for adjectives, e.g., in bedst and bedste. ...
5
votes
2answers
198 views
Adjective position in Provençal (Occitan)
Can anyone tell me the rules for adjective position in Provençal?
I know that, like most other Romance languages, most adjectives go after the noun, with some exceptions. But I can't find the exact ...
8
votes
3answers
3k views
Why do adjectives come before nouns in English?
Why does the attributive adjective come before a noun in English? In most languages, the adjective comes always after a noun. For example, white car is written as the equivalent of car white in Latin ...
3
votes
0answers
76 views
Does StanfordNLP have a problem with adverbs?
I suspect not, and I'm being dumb, but ...
Usain ran quickest.
is parsed (https://corenlp.run) as
NNP VBZ JJS.
Why JJS (Adjective, superlative) and not RBS (Adverb, superlative)?
Using extended ...
0
votes
2answers
214 views
The Grelling-Nelson Paradox
The following excerpt is from Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter.
Divide the adjectives in English into two categories: those which are self-descriptive, such as "...
4
votes
1answer
82 views
Different types of color adjectives
One the one hand, Berlin and Kay found a linguistic hierarchy of colors. On the other hand, some languages have several kinds of colors.
In French, color adjectives are invariable if they come from ...
0
votes
0answers
77 views
Name for adjectives modifying the verb within a noun rather than the noun itself (as in "illegal immigrant")
I'm interested in the phenomenon where people object to "illegal" as though it is inaccurate because the person implied by "immigrant" cannot be illegal in merely being a person. While moral and legal ...
1
vote
0answers
33 views
Is there a database which tags the "high/low" sense of comparative adjectives?
For example, “faster” is “high” (speed) whereas slower is “low” (speed). Similarly, "longer" is "high" and "shorter" aligns with "low".
4
votes
1answer
142 views
Is gradable vs absolute a universal distinction?
Inspired by multiple questions on ELU and in particular this recent question about 'correct', I wonder whether French has the similar concept of gradable vs absolute adjectives.
The idea is that some ...
0
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0answers
60 views
Past Participial Relatives are the sourse of Participial Adjectives, why?
I came across this statement in a work (Ph.D. Dissertation, p.158) by Asier Alcázar Estela in which he assumes that the Past Participial Relatives are the source of the Participial Adjectives. And he ...
0
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2answers
61 views
Is "bien décidés" an adjectival phrase?
Mais il me faut quelques volontaires bien décidés.
in that sentence, décidés is considered as an adjective right? So does the phrase bien décidés an adjectival phrase or adverbial phrase?
1
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2answers
171 views
Triggering emotions with language
Emotional responses to certain words is often argued to be a result of nurture(acquired through development), while emotional responses to Tone is largely attributable to nature(born with).
Shouldn't ...
1
vote
1answer
124 views
Terminology for chained, nested adjective anatomy
For the moment I am just considering adjectives and adverbs as the same sort of thing, basically modifiers for the noun or verb. I will probably only focus on nouns here for simplicity.
Some examples ...
2
votes
3answers
137 views
Are there languages where the imperative of "to be" (as in "be happy") is non-existent or achievable through vastly different means?
I know many languages don't have the word "to be" (e.g. Hawaiian), but I don't know how they form "to be" imperatives. I'm not asking specifically about Hawaiian, though that is welcome as well. ...
6
votes
2answers
784 views
What is the syntax of "second" in phrases like "the second most common problem"?
In English, words like "second", "third" etc. (also "next", I guess) can be used with a superlative to count down from the maximum.
Some dictionaries call "second" an adverb in this context (e.g. MW, ...
0
votes
2answers
367 views
Stolen, part of speech
I've checked several dictionaries for the word "stolen" only to find it labeled a verb. Virtually all of the examples sentences use it in a manner that I would have considered an adjective:
"The ...
1
vote
1answer
48 views
Infinitive clauses referring to an adjective before a noun [closed]
We know that infinitive clauses can sometimes refer to adjectives before nouns. I feel with what adjectives they can do that, but I don't have any reason for it.
Examples;
You can buy the best book ...
0
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0answers
63 views
Are there languages which have ways to distinguish between an adjunct noun and an adjective?
(Take some example). Do other languages (than English) have means distinguish between their adjunct nouns and adjectives or is it a very complex/grammatical structure that cannot possibly be ...
0
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1answer
726 views
A concept called extreme-opposites
I am novice in linguistics but I have a keen interest in natural (spoken) languages. There is this concept in my mind called "extreme-opposites" or "extreme-antonyms". The concept goes like this:
...
3
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0answers
95 views
How can be these two types of adjective distinguished terminologically?
In adjectives there are two main groups:
First Group: adjectives that their 3 grades (base, comparative and superlative) are changed whether regularly (nice > nicer > nicest) or irregularly (good > ...
0
votes
1answer
37 views
Is there a technical term for the kind of adjective A which appears in sentences of the form 'The object O is A.'?
Question.
Is there an attested technical term for the construction
'Object O is A.'
where O is a noun and A is an adjective?
Remarks.
The phenomenon that I am hoping to read about, and find a ...
1
vote
1answer
180 views
Is there a term for an adjective or noun becoming a verb, like "to adult"?
Is there a term for a word that is traditionally an adjective or noun becoming a verb over time? A word I'm thinking of is "adult", which Merriam-Webster has reported has become increasingly ...
5
votes
2answers
146 views
Has there been cross-linguistic work on differential adjective-noun order?
In recent years, a massive amount of attention in linguistics has been devoted to the variation within language varieties of grammatical structures caused by semantic and discourse-pragmatic factors, ...
1
vote
2answers
370 views
What is the part of speech of 'modifiers to adjectives'?
This is something I was just thinking about. Adjectives in a lot of languages can also take modifiers of their own: very big, more intelligent, etc... But is there an actual word for the part of ...
2
votes
0answers
73 views
Data/Resource for adjectives related to nouns
I am looking for resource or some way(maybe using multiple resources) which can help me figure out which adjectives to use. For example:
weight > 40 : heavier
age > 40 : older
I am not sure how to ...
3
votes
1answer
337 views
Case assignment with prepositions
Consider these examples:
'I am happy with my parents'
my parents gets assigned Case by 'with'.
*'I am proud with my parents'
My question is as follows:
What is the reasoning for 2 being ...
1
vote
1answer
981 views
What is the x-bar tree of 'I am proud of my students'? (having trouble with proud)
I am having trouble attaching the 'proud' to the 'am'. 'Am' is a verb and 'proud' is an adjective for the noun 'I', so should come as an adjunct for 'I', but here it would have to somehow come from ...
1
vote
2answers
141 views
Where can I find a lexicon of adjectives?
I am currently looking for a list of adjectives that I can use as a seed for a machine learning model. These do not need to be annotated. Are there any open source lexicons that exist which could be ...
3
votes
2answers
126 views
Term for -ed as an adjectival suffix?
By which I mean changing a noun into an adjective by adding '-ed'.
For example: the noun 'horn' becomes the adjective 'horned'
Is there a term for the type of adjective that is formed from a noun by ...
4
votes
2answers
150 views
How is the the adjective in a definite noun phrase different from a nondefinite one in Germanic and Balto-Slavic languages?
In the wikipedia article about definiteness I came upon this:
In the Germanic languages and Balto-Slavic languages, for example (as still in modern German and Lithuanian), there are two paradigms ...
0
votes
1answer
125 views
Do other languages than English have verbals ,too?
As I understand it, verbals are nouns,adjectives and adverbs which are derived from verbs.
I don't understand if a verbal is indeed one of the three parts of speeches mentioned or a part of speech of ...
0
votes
0answers
110 views
Is "down at the bar" an adjective phrase or adverb phrase?
There are three parts of speeches attributed to "down" in the dictionary: adjective, adverb and verb.
I understand , that at the bar is a sub phrase and a prepositional phrase.
I don't know the rules ...
1
vote
0answers
41 views
Can adjectives be concrete in an ontological sense? [closed]
Hello everyone,
I'm trying to further define adjectives such as "beautiful" in an ontological sense.
Can any adjectives which denote abstract OR concrete nouns, be concrete?
Can "beautiful" be an ...
2
votes
0answers
159 views
Type of adjective, "more" vs. "less" [closed]
Does Linguistics group adjectives by their nature to denote an absolute quantity, as opposed to those that denote a relative quantity? If so, are there terms for such adjectives pointing out this ...
3
votes
1answer
82 views
Governors of adjectives in dependency grammars
In some dependency treebanks for Germanic languages, nouns in subject position are assigned the governors of their corresponding predicative adjectives, as opposed to the copular verb connecting the ...
4
votes
3answers
185 views
What is it called when one "conjugates" adjectives?
If one conjugates verbs and declines nouns, what is it called when an adjective is "conjugated," as it is in French to agree in gender and plurality with the noun? (E.g. "beau" is masculine singular ...
2
votes
0answers
58 views
How do I distinguish between traits and states using NLP?
In an English sentence:
Harry was displeased.
– displeased is a state
Harry was benevolent.
– benevolent is a trait
Given an adjective, how can I distinguish between a trait and a state?
The ...
1
vote
1answer
320 views
Is the word the name of a person or an adjective? [closed]
I don't know hebrew and I was reading a transliteration of the following phrase,
"חכו ממתקים וכלו מחמדים זה דודי וזה רעי בנות ירושלם׃"
Is the word "מחמדים" referring to a person name or an adjective ...
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