A LOB-Corpus-based Semantic Profile of the Adjective in English Supplementive Clauses

One of the various forms that the expression of attribution may take in English is through a supplementive clause, a reduced structure realized by an adjective phrase hypotactically connected with a superordinate clause. The construction under study exhibits an attributive character in that the adjective predicates about the NP subject, but also possesses an adverbial import in so far as it expresses diverse circumstances relating to the main clause. This kind of structure is, however, not entirely free of constraints; in fact, not every adjective may combine with a matrix verb, and certain semantic patterns can be observed to occur recurrently in these constructions. This paper surveys a substantial number of adjectives from the LOB corpus for the identification of the semantic profile proper to supplementive adjectives.