Implementation of qualia structures provided by relative adjectives and composites in German

Abstract

The present paper deals with the semantic representation of attributive elements in the nominative group − relative adjectives and composites. The aim of the present study is to analyze the semantic representation of a predominantly noun in an attributive group with reference to Qualia structures, as applied in J. Pustejovsky’s theory of generative lexicon, and their realization through relative adjectives and composites, which are direct explicators of the semantic structure of predominant words (nouns). The study is based on the 150 most frequent relative adjectives identified on the basis of the electronic corpus of the German language. Relative adjectives qualify as Qualia structures and can denote objective constitutive (material and origin), formal (physical parameters, colour, time, place), telic (purpose and function of an object) and agentive (information about the creator, artifact, natural genus and causal chain) properties. The system of relative adjectives demonstrates a wide range of semantic meanings that are expressed in German by other linguistic means, e.g. composites. When describing the possibility of implementing Qualia structures in the noun group, other correlative linguistic units, such as composites, are analyzed. The variation in the use of nouns in composites and relative adjectives formed from them helps to actualize the presence of a feature in a particular situation, to give the nominal groups a terminological character and to make the transition from one qualification group to another.