The rich internal structure of gradable adjectives

Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14210%2F25%3A00144473" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14210/25:00144473 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111547688-003/html" target="_blank" >https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111547688-003/html</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783111547688-003" target="_blank" >10.1515/9783111547688-003</a>

Result language
angličtina
Original language name
The rich internal structure of gradable adjectives
Original language description
The chapter provides evidence from Czech for the existence of at least three functional heads in a gradable adjective (Vanden Wyngaerd et al., 2020). The heads are (i) a dimension dim (such as speed), (ii) a direction dir (distinguishing antonymous adjectives such as fast vs. slow), and (iii) a standard of comparison, abbreviated as point. Evidence for this rich internal structure comes from the morphology of positive-degree adjectives, which can be morphologically complex, showing either the suffix n or k. These morphemes interact differently with the diminutive morpheme ouč, with n preceding the diminutive, and k following it. This indicates that n and k occupy two different positions. When we consider the position for the root in addition, we have three positions for the adjective in total. Based on the distribution of the adjectival suffixes n and k in the comparative, we furthermore distinguish six different classes of adjectives. Using a nanosyntactic approach (Starke, 2018), we argue that this complex distribution can be accounted for by assuming a decomposition of the comparative into three different heads, the idea that roots vary in size, and the existence of lexical items with complex left branches (Blix, 2022).
Czech name
—
Czech description
—

Project
<a href="/en/project/GA25-15601S" target="_blank" >GA25-15601S: Stem morphology (STEMOR)</a><br>
Continuities
P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year
2025
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Book/collection name
Generative Perspectives on Degrees : The Semantics and Morphosyntax of Scalarity
ISBN
9783111547688
Number of pages of the result
30
Pages from-to
11-40
Number of pages of the book
400
Publisher name
De Gruyter
Place of publication
Berlin
UT code for WoS chapter
001640015900002

Similar results(10)