Adjectives and the Tensedness Parameter

Abstract

Abstract Within the domain of intransitive predication, adjectives form an in-between category in two respects. In the semantic ‘topography’ of the domain, adjectives constitute a transitory category between nouns and verbs, in that they occupy an intermediate position on the Time Stability Hierarchy. From the point of view of formal encoding, adjectives can be said to be ambivalent as well. As we have established in the chapters of Part One, predicative adjectives form the only category in the domain for which there does not seem to be a prototypical encoding strategy. Thus, a simple, non-supported, encoding strategy is prototypically associated with predicative verbs; a nonverbal zero strategy prototypically occurs with predicative nouns; predicative locationals typically have a full nonverbal encoding; but for adjectives, no such prototypical association with some encoding strategy can be established. In other words, predicative adjectives never have an encoding strategy which is unique to them.