A conversion analysis of so-called coercion from relational to qualitative adjectives in English. (July 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Nagano, Akiko
• Is Part Of: Word structure. Volume 11:Number 2(2018)
• Page Start: 185
• Page End: 210
• Publication Date: 2018-07
• Subjects: derived adjectives -- relational adjectives -- complement-modifier distinction -- class name -- modal attributives; Grammar, Comparative and general -- Morphology -- Periodicals; 415
• DOI: 10.3366/word.2018.0124
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1750-1245

Abstract

Abstract : 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.