Notes on the Semantic Structure of English Adjectives

Abstract

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.