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Article published In: Lingvisticæ Investigationes
Vol. 42:2 (2019) ► pp.234–261

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The predicative adjective and its propositional arguments

A lexicon-grammar classification

 | University of Salerno
Published online: 16 March 2020
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https://doi.org/10.1075/li.00035.mes
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to classify Italian adjectives that have the predicative function and accept a complement clause (Ch F) or an infinitive (V-inf) in N0 or N1 . For the formation of the word list, we have used electronic dictionaries from the “DELA” system in use in the Department of Communication Sciences at the University of Salerno (now Department of Political and Communication Sciences) and De Mauro Dictionaries (De Mauro, T. 2000a. Il dizionario della lingua italiana. Torino: Paravia.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar and 2000b. Grande dizionario italiano dell’uso (GRADIT). Torino: Utet.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar).
34,132 adjectives of the Nooj list have been examined. The acquired data have been subjected to further verifications in order to obtain the adjectives responding to the basic theoretical hypothesis. The adjectives have been classified according to the principles of Lexicon-Grammar methodology as developed by Maurice Gross (Gross, M. 1975. Méthodes en syntaxe. Paris: Hermann.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, 1981. Les bases empiriques de la notion de predicat semantique. Langages, 15(63), 7–52. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar and further). The result was a list of 1,732 entries relating to 1,619 adjectives classified in 10 classes.
Article outline
  • 1.The arguments of the predicative adjective
  • 2.The construction SN essere Agg
  • 3.Classification
  • 4. Ch F and V-inf as a propositional subject of the predicative adjective
    • 4.1Ap1a = N0 V → (Ch F + V-inf)0 essere Agg
    • 4.2Ap1b = N0 V → Ch F0 essere Agg
    • 4.3Ap1c = N0 V → V-inf0 essere Agg
    • 4.4Ap2 = N0 V Prep N1 → (Ch F + V-inf)0 essere Agg Prep N1
  • 5.The structure N0 essere Agg (E + Prep) N1
    • 5.1Ap3 = N0 V Prep N1 → Num0 essere Agg ((del fatto) Ch F + di V-inf)1
    • 5.2Ap4 = N0 V Prep N1 → (Num + N-um)0 essere Agg a (Ch F + V-inf)1
    • 5.3Ap5 = N0 V Prep N1 → ((Il fatto) Ch F + V-inf)0 essere Agg (simm) Prep ((Il fatto) Ch F + V-inf)1
    • 5.4Ap6 = N0 V Prep N1 → (Num + N-um + il fatto (Ch F + di V-inf))0 essere Agg Prep il fatto (Ch F + di V-inf)1
  • 6.ApFI - Definitional structures of indirect interrogative clauses
  • 7.A short final note
  • Notes
  • Selected references
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