Class Of Adjectives Research Articles

What language models can tell us about learning adjectives

It has been argued that language models (LMs) inform our knowledge of language acquisition. While LMs are claimed to replicate aspects of grammatical knowledge, it remains unclear how this translates to acquisition directly. We ask if a language model trained specifically on child-directed speech (CDS) is able to capture grammatical knowledge of adjectives. Ultimately, our results reveal that what the model is “learning” is how adjectives are distributed in CDS, and not the grammatical properties of different adjective classes. While highlighting the ability of LMs to learn distributional information, these findings suggest that LMs alone cannot explain how children generalize beyond their input.

The remodelling of u-stem adjectives in West Germanic

In Proto-Germanic, strong adjectives are declined according to stem type. The minor u­-stem class of adjectives is only preserved in Gothic, and even there it is under pressure from more frequent classes. In West Germanic, members of this class are redistributed into the common a-/ō-stem and ja-/jō-stem classes. The present study analysed the reflexes of all Proto-Germanic u-stem adjectives in Kroonen (2013) in the different West Germanic languages. It was found that a plurality are transferred into the ja-/jō-stem class in all languages. However, a considerable number of them have a-/ō-stem reflexes in some languages but ja-/jō-stem ones in others, while certain adjectives can show reflexes of both types within one language. Anglo-Frisian has the largest number of a-/ō-stem outcomes, and High German the most ja-/jō-stem ones, with Dutch and Low German falling somewhere in between. Therefore, the remodelling of u-stem adjectives necessarily postdates a period of West Germanic unity.

Processing adjectives in development: Evidence from eye-tracking.

Combining adjective meaning with the modified noun is particularly challenging for children under three years. Previous research suggests that in processing noun-adjective phrases children may over-rely on noun information, delaying or omitting adjective interpretation. However, the question of whether this difficulty is modulated by semantic differences among (subsective) adjectives is underinvestigated.A visual-world experiment explores how Italian-learning children (N=38, 2;4-5;3) process noun-adjective phrases and whether their processing strategies adapt based on the adjective class. Our investigation substantiates the proficient integration of noun and adjective semantics by children. Nevertheless, alligning with previous research, a notable asymmetry is evident in the interpretation of nouns and adjectives, the latter being integrated more slowly. Remarkably, by testing toddlers across a wide age range, we observe a developmental trajectory in processing, supporting a continuity approach to children's development. Moreover, we reveal that children exhibit sensitivity to the distinct interpretations associated with each subsective adjective.

¿(Está/Es) Difícil?: Variable Use of Ser and Estar by Heritage Learners of Spanish

The current study examines variation in copula selection in Spanish by looking at the written productions of three groups of language learners in the United States, including heritage learners, those with English as an L1, and international students with English as an L2. Research on copula variation in Spanish has pinpointed several key linguistic and social factors that influence selection; this study aims to apply these findings to heritage learners in order to determine how their acquisition differs from that of non-native language learners. This analysis used the COWS-L2H corpus of Spanish from the University of California, Davis. Examining over 8000 tokens of [adjective + copula] constructions in variable contexts where both ser and estar were used, the study tracks how linguistic and extralinguistic factors condition copula selection within the three learner groups and how these results compare to previous findings. Seven factors were predictive of copula selection: resultant state, frame of reference, adjective class, experience with study abroad, essay prompt, student age, and course level. Heritage learner copula use was found to be governed by a different set of predictors than that of learners, hinting at the variable motivations and backgrounds that influence use and reflect the identity goals of these speakers.

Семантические особенности перцептивных прилагательных (лексико-семантические группы «Зрение», «Слух», «Осязание», «Обоняние», «Вкус») в древнеанглийском языке

The aim of the research is to identify the semantic characteristics of perceptual adjectives in Old English, to obtain data on the ratio of adjectives belonging to the lexico-semantic groups (hereinafter LSG) “Vision”, “Hearing”, “Touch”, “Smell”, “Taste” and to study the formation of the lexico-semantic field of synaesthetic adjectives. The paper notes the percentage of intramodal, polymodal and crossmodal adjectives, analyses cases of synaesthetic usage of perceptual adjectives and presents models of synaesthetic transfer. The scientific novelty of the research lies in ascertaining the fact that the boundaries between the lexico-semantic groups of perceptual adjectives are not rigid and there are attributes whose meanings relate to characteristics of multiple modes. The paper is the first to determine that adjectives from the LSG “Vision”, alongside adjectives from the LSG “Touch”, are dominant in Old English. A classification of adjectives from the LSG “Vision” was developed and the ratio of perceptual adjectives of different modes was determined. The novelty of the research also lies in a broad approach to selecting perceptual adjectives for lexico-semantic groups. As a result of the conducted overview, the semantic characteristics of perceptual adjectives in Old English were identified and data on the ratio of adjectives in the lexico-semantic groups “Vision”, “Hearing”, “Touch”, “Smell”, “Taste” were obtained. It is shown that adjectives from the LSG “Vision” are used to denote auditory, tactile, gustatory and olfactory semantic features through semantic transfer (synaesthetic metaphor).

Morphophonolgical Productivity of English Verb-Forming Suffix -en

The purpose of this paper is to investigate that the formations of the derived verbs with a suffix -en can be productive structurally and functionally when the phonological and morphological restrictions in the suffixation to the base are satisfied. Phonologically the base should be monosyllabic and have the final obstruents, whereas morphologically the base or the stem should belong to the grammatical class of adjectives (or some of exceptional derived nouns). The semantic property that the suffix -en has could be inchoative or causative; this might be regarded as the latent nature resulting from morphologically meaningful units. As a result, it would be obvious that morphophonological constraints [Obs]#, [monoσ]stem, and [Adj]stem analyzing the phonological distribution and morphosyntactic construction as well as the frequencies in corpus relating with the use of the verb forms with -en prove the productivity in the observation of word formation.

Premodifiers and a scarcity-productivity hypothesis in Yorùbá: Does the scarcity of adjectives influence productivity of the premodification slot?

The notion that the Yorùbá language operates only a small, closed class of adjectives is well noted in the literature. However, this hypothesis of scarcity of adjectives in the Yorùbá language is yet to be examined in light of how such scarcity may influence the creativity of speakers in creating new functional adjectives, influence the placement of ‘created’ adjectives and the productivity of the premodification slot in the noun phrase structure. Combining theoretical concepts from construction grammar with corpus evidence drawn from a major source of contemporary Yorùbá, the article shows how speakers of Yorùbá negotiate between scarcity, creativity, placement and complexity in modifying their referents. The article identifies different forms of premodifiers, especially a sort of ‘creative premodifier’ with which a complex syntactic-semantic behaviour is built into the ensuing NP structure. It is argued that a scarcity of attributive adjectives in the language is a crucial variable with which relations between premodifiers and postmodifiers can be explored.

Perspectivized estar-sentences with aesthetic adjectives across American Spanish varieties

Abstract The article describes the behavior of aesthetic adjectives (bonito ‘beautiful’) in the so-called innovative constructions with estar ‘be estar ’, documented in some American varieties of Spanish. These innovative structures (El poema está bonito ‘The poem is beautiful’) do not compare stages of the subject with respect to an aesthetic property (as would be their meaning in general Spanish), but rather express a perspectivized assertion, linked to the subjective judgment of the speaker about a particular quality. The article explains this pattern of variation on the basis of the work by Gumiel-Molina, Moreno-Quibén and Pérez-Jiménez (2020) and Moreno-Quibén (2022), according to which the classes of adjectives that appear in perspectivized estar-sentences have undergone a process of argument augmentation. Aesthetic adjectives in innovative estar-construction have an experiencer in their argument structure in the varieties of Spanish where this construction is possible. This experiencer serves as the basis for establishing the comparison required by estar and ultimately gives rise to the subjective/perspectivized meaning of the copular structure.

The notion of ‘adjective’ in the history of Pamean language descriptions

ABSTRACT The issue of word classes has a long-standing tradition in the European history of the language sciences. Amongst scholars of Otopamean languages there is a rather clear agreement that little positive evidence for the existence of a proper class of adjectives is to be found in this very language family. Such analyses are not at all rare for Mesoamerican languages. The paper will focus on the representation of this discussion in old colonial and postcolonial grammars, dictionaries and texts about the Pamean subgroup – works which mostly stem from the context of missionary writers in the first place. Specifically, it will try to illustrate the indecisiveness and sometimes seemingly hesitant treatment of how to deal with the European concept of ‘adjectives’ in those languages – even in postcolonial times. We will argue that the critical points brought up in the recent theoretical and descriptive discussion reflect problems that authors in the history up to the 20th century had with this very category (like overlaps with certain verb types or with nouns, according to adjective classes). With varying breadth and depth, the sources taken into account concern Pamean, namely Northern, Southern and Central Pame.

Класът на прилагателните имена в нормативната граматика на българския език – формален подход

The paper deals with the definition of the class of adjectives in Standard Bulgarian in a normative grammar that adopts a functional approach to linguistic description. This approach is based on the distinction between form and semantics through the application of strict morphosyntactic criteria. The description proposed is focused on the representation of: the classification features motivating this word class; the subclasses of adjectives; their functional paradigm and structural features; the homonymy between adjectives and linguistic items from other parts of speech. In addition, the authors offer a discussion on a number of questions related to the description of the class.

The use of gender-neuter marking in Brazilian Portuguese tweets: a sociolinguist approach

This research investigates gender-neuter marking in Brazilian Portuguese, a recent lin guistic variation that has divided many opinions in Brazilian social and political circles until now. The Theory of Varia tion (LABOV, 2008 [1972]; WEINREICH; LABOV; HERZOG, 2006 [1968]), with a focus on Communities of Practice (ECKERT; MCCONNELL-GINET, 1992a, 1992b), supports the descriptio n and analysis conducted. To observe the variant, we opted for the social network Twitter, from which we collected 3,446 tweets produced by three subjects during the second half of 2020 who explic itly expressed a preference for the use of the neuter pronouns “Elu,” “Ilu,” “El” or “Ile.” As a selection criterion, we considered tweets containing adjectiv es, nouns, and pronouns whose referent was a human, and morphological markers carrying gender distinction. The predictor variables stipulated were morphosyntactic class, lexical ite m, the tweet topic, parti cipant, and the reference performed by gender marks (generic or specific). The sample was submitte d through the RStudio program, version 4.1.2, through which the proposed statisticaltreatment w as c arried o ut. T he r esults reveal a d isadvantage r egarding g ender-neuter marking for all partic ipants, not showing optimistic estimates about any specific word. They also pointed out the adjective class, the affective relationship and identity topics, and the generic reference performed by gender marking as conditioners of gender-neuter employment

PEMEROLEHAN BAHASA INDONESIA TATARAN KELAS KATA PADA ANAK USIA EMPAT TAHUN

The focus of the study of this research is the acquisition of the Indonesian language of the research subjects by paying attention to language production at the word class level of the subjects. The approach used in this study is descriptive qualitative because it intends to understand phenomena about the experiences of research subjects such as behavior, perceptions, motivations, actions, and others by way of descriptions in the form of words in a special or natural context with natural methods. The data collection technique used was the transcription of the recording results, and interviews with informants who were the subject's family. The form of data is in the form of transcription results and additional notes. The analysis technique in this study was carried out by recording transcripts and recording observations in the field, then coded to make it easier to track data, collect and classify data, then find patterns and relationships. The results of the study show that in the context of playing and carrying out daily activities at home, five types of word classes have been found that have been produced by the subject, namely verbs, nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and numerals. The production of word classes which are mostly produced are verbs and nouns, while the word classes of adjectives, pronouns, and numerals are still little produced. On the basis of the results of these observations, the subject can be classified as a child who has a speech delay, because he has not mastered the construction of sentences using particles and conjunctions as a complement.

Prédicats non verbaux en akwá, bantu C22 de la République du Congo

This article aims to describe the functioning of non-verbal predicates in Akwá, a Bantu language of the C20 group of M. Guthrie, drawing inspiration, on a theoretical level, from the principles of Martinetian functionalism. Thus, by the mechanism of juxtaposition which makes it possible to form bimonematic utterances, the non-verbal predicates are assumed by the monemes belonging mainly to the classes of nominals, pronouns, adjectives and many other grammatical categories. However, in monomonematic utterances, the non-verbal predicative function is assumed, apart from nominals, by adverbs and interjections whose different uses serve to formulate insults, slogans or greetings.

The role of word formation manners in the creation of adjectives in the Albanian language

This part of the speech has been enriched and is constantly being enriched with new words, both from other parts of the speech and from the adjective class itself. The most productive ways of adjective word formation are origin (affixation, articulation, articulation and affixation at the same time), composition and structure.Initial adjectives are those adjectives, which today are unanalyzable in their constituent parts, neither a word-forming theme nor a word-forming formant can be investigated. Besides type adjective: alive, evil, good, first, young, here also enter all the adjectives of foreign origin, which within Albanian are unresolvable in their constituent elements, eg: absolute, banal, decadent, elegant, naive, real etc.Derivative adjectives are those adjectives, when in present Albanian the source can be investigated, derivation from another word with the participation of different word-forming morphemes. Thus, these adjectives are resolvable, analyzable in their constituent elements. Here are distinguished derivative adjectives with: a) prefixation, b) suffixation, c) articulation and suffixation simultaneously, and d) articulation, prefixation and suffixation simultaneously.Our paper aims to give an insight into the types of adjectives according to the mode of word-formation, as well as their use in different grammatical circumstances.Keywords: typology, part of speech, adjective, word-formation.

Adherence to Mirror Image Hierarchy: Evidence from Modern Standard and Libyan Arabic

Abstract Referring to a specific object sometimes requires using several modifiers, such as adjectives with nouns to describe objects. The ordering of these adjectives is generally assumed to adhere to universal hierarchies. It is, therefore, predicted that prenominal (e.g. English) languages present preferred ordering, and postnominal (Arabic) languages are further expected to mirror the ordering observed in those prenominal languages. This paper investigates these predictions by providing a quantitative account of internal orderings of elements in some Arabic noun phrases in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Libyan Arabic (LA). The primary concern is with the relative ordering of adjectives, where both semantic adjective classes and functions (specifying~descriptive~classifying) are invoked. The study findings showed ordering preference in both MSA and LA, at both the global and refined functional levels, in line with the suggested hierarchies. Deviation from the preferred order also appeared possible but under certain circumstances which appear at a greater level in LA than MSA. These instances were, however, accounted for through factors such as contrastive environments.

POLA PENAMAAN MAHASISWA ISLAM, MAKNA, DAN PERWUJUDAN PROFIL PELAJAR PANCASILA

This research aims at (1) describing the naming pattern of Moslem students, (2) deciding the meaning of Moslem students, and (3) explaining the implementation of Pancasila student profile in the name of Moslem students. This descriptive qualitative research analyzes the 75 names of IAIN Ponogoro’s students. The research result shows that (1) the pattern of the names consists of three and two words, combining noun and adjective class of words, adapting Arab lexical as Moslem signifier, (2) the meanings of the names are positive, wanting to imitate Moslem figures, and wishing to have the same luck as the given name, and (3) the Pancasila student profile that are found (a) having faith to God Almighty and having good attitude, (b) having a global diversity, and (c) creative mind.

Kuidas ära tunda adjektiivi? Korpuskäitumise mustrite analüüs

Artiklis uurime adjektiivi morfosüntaktilisi tunnuseid ja selgitame, kuivõrd on prototüüpsele adjektiivile omistatavad tunnused (nt ühildumine, võrrete moodustamine) adjektiiviklassile eriomased. Loome neile tunnustele tuginedes parameetrid, mille abil eristame korpuse andmete põhjal adjektiive teistest sõnaliikidest. Tüüpilise adjektiivi korpusprofiili tuvastamise kaugem eesmärk on rakenduse loomine, mis võimaldaks leksikograafidel ebaselgete juhtumite puhul kontrollida sõna adjektiviseerumise astet. Tutvustame kuue parameetri testimise tulemust 12 sõnarühma peal, millest igaühte kuulub 10 sõna. Sõnavalikul arvestame adjektiiviklassi piiripealseid juhtumeid ja leksikograafilisi kitsaskohti. Analüüsime, mil määral hälbivad erinevad testrühmad testitud parameetrite põhjal prototüüpsest adjektiiviklassi esindajast ning vaatleme ka variatsiooni adjektiiviklassi sees. Kõrvale kaldeanalüüs võimaldab välja selgitada parima eristusvõimega parameetrid. Eukleidilise kauguse mõõtmine eristab hästi adjektiivisarnased sõnad ja rühmad nendest, mis sarnanevad prototüüpsele adjektiivile vähem. *** How to recognize adjectives? An analysis of corpus patterns This study was inspired by a survey of Estonian lexicographers (Paulsen, Vainik and Tuulik 2019), where the lexicographers expressed the need for a new digital tool that would facilitate word class identification for ambiguous cases. In the case of adjectives, the lexicographers emphasized the difficulty of determining if a verb participle has sufficient adjectival use to be included in dictionaries as an adjective. In the article, we examine the morphosyntactic features characteristic of the adjective class and test different parameters in the corpora to differentiate adjectives from other word classes. We provide an overview of the test results of six parameters. In the study we analysed 12 groups of 10 words each. The test groups and test words were chosen manually, with consideration given to the problematic cases outlined by the lexicographers. We compared different types of adjectives or near to adjectives (the test groups) as well as different word classes (the control groups). To analyse the parameters’ capability to set adjectives apart, a deviation study was conducted. We determined a normative range for prototypical adjectives and set the minimum and maximum value for every parameter. In addition, we calculated the deviation of other test groups from the prototypical adjective range. The groups of particular focus (regular verb participles vs. adjectives) were best differentiated by three parameters. The sentence beginning testword+noun parameter (which determined if and how often a test word starts a sentence in the complement position) sets participles apart with 90% accuracy. Also, the parameter that measured the existence of comparative forms for test words was 100% accurate. The adverb parameter (which measured how often a test word is preceded by an adverb) was able to distinguish adjectives from verb participles with 80% accuracy. Among all groups, the comparative form parameter was the most accurate in the deviation study at setting prototypical adjectives apart from other test groups. A Euclidean distance analysis was able to differentiate adjective-like test words and test groups from others that do not behave similarly to prototypical adjectives. As all tested parameters produced meaningful results and were able to differentiate some word classes from adjectives, they can be input for a new digital tool which would show a word’s deviation from prototypical word class representatives to help lexicographers with word-class-related decisions.

Adjective Placement in English/Spanish Mixed Determiner Phrases: Insights from Acceptability Judgments

The present study examines the relative order of noun-adjective sequences within code-switched Determiner Phrases. Several hypotheses have been considered: (i) Order is a property defined by the noun; (ii) it is a property defined by the adjective; (iii) it is a property governed by the carrier phrase. The studies that have investigated the issue all assume that the class of adjectives is homogeneous, but in fact, there exist several sub-classes of adjectives which in many languages, including Spanish, exhibit distinct ordering properties. We propose to add the variable ‘adjective type’ to our study and use code-switching of English/Spanish, two languages that differ in the position of adjectives, as our database. A total of thirty English/Spanish heritage speakers took part in an experiment. Our results show that both the language of the adjective and the carrier phrase are significant factors of word order in the noun phrase; on the other hand, the noun itself does not seem to play a role.

НЕЙТРАЛИЗАЦИЯ СЕМАНТИКИ ОПРЕДЕЛЕННОСТИ И ЕЕ СВЯЗЬ С ИСТОРИЕЙ ФОРМ ПРИЛАГАТЕЛЬНОГО В РУССКОМ И ЛИТОВСКОМ ЯЗЫКАХ

В статье речь идет о связи исторического развития прилагательного в русском и литовском языках с нейтрализацией семантики определенности/неопределенности. Исследование категории определен ности/неопределенности проводится с точки зрения функциональной грамматики и теории референции (детерминации). Материалом исследования явились прилагательные, собранные из текстов Успенского сборника XII–XIII вв. Сопоставление с литовским языком позволяет сделать некоторые уточнения, касающиеся развития членных форм прилагательных в славянских и балтийских языках. The relationship the interplay between the historical development of the adjective in the Russian and Lithuanian languages and the neutralization of the semantics of a definiteness is examined in the article. The paper describes the peculiarities of the use of simple and pronominal forms of adjectives from the functional grammar and the theory of reference (determination) point of view (I.I. Revzin, N.D. Arutunova, A.D. Shmelev, S.A. Krylov, T.M. Nikolaeva). We takes into account the opinion of the linguists V.V. Kolesov, A.M. Kuznetsov, N.S. Trubetskoy. The conclusions of the research are based on the analysis of all contexts with simple and pronominal forms of adjectives contained in word-index to the Uspensky codex of 12th–13th centuries. We are dealing with 1235 adjectives which are used almost 9 thousand times: there are about 4 thousand samples of usage of simple forms and about 5 thousand of pronominal forms. We suppose more than 1500 cases of simple forms of adjectives in the Uspensky codex illustrate their usage for expressing the definiteness in case if it has already been expressed by lexical means (neutralization). Lithuanian material is analyzed according to the grammars of the Lithuanian language and articles on the adjective and the problem of the definiteness/indefiniteness category in the scientific literature in the Lithuanian language (authors Ambrazas V., Valeckienė A., Spraunienė B., Paulauskienė A., Mikulskas R., Holvoet A., Tamulionienė A.). Comparison of Modern Lithuanian and Old Literary Russian language texts allows to make some clarifications regarding the development of member forms of adjectives in the Slavic and Baltic languages. Due to inseparable pronoun-adjective joining, close and complex relations have developed between the meaning of definiteness and the semantics of different groups of adjectives. This is explained by the fact that the lexical meaning of a relative adjective itself, its word-building possibilities single out, identify the object and can present it as well-known. Distinctive semantics of adjectives would often determine sole usage of pronominal or simple forms. 164 Сравнительное языкознание In modern Lithuanian, an interrelation is also noticed between the possibility of making pronominal forms and classes of adjectives. It should be noted that this relationship is opposite in Old Russian and Modern Lithuanian. In the Uspensky codex of the 12–13th centuries, the category of definiteness is constantly expressed using pronominal forms in the cases where it has already been previously expressed by other means, i.e. demonstrative pronouns, proper names or lexical word meanings. It is vice versa in Lithuanian: when definiteness is expresses using lexical devices (e.g. relative and compound adjectives), such forms are not used or used inconsistently (with proper names, demonstrative pronouns and appeals). Comparison with the Lithuanian language suggests that in the Old Russian language such a situation was quite possible in the beginning.

Sizing up adjectives

AbstractAdjectives are often identified via notional or even translational criteria in sign language research, which reflects a lack of formal criteria for identifying this part of speech in the field. This paper presents the results of a guided production task investigating the conservative hypothesis that ASL has a small, closed adjective class consisting only of terms for dimension, age, value, and color. Evidence from the syntactic distribution of these core properties compared to non-core properties will be presented to refute the initial hypothesis and show that ASL has an open adjective class. Its members are characterized by their ability to occur as prenominal modifiers without function-indicating morphosyntax. The semantic distinction between core and peripheral adjectives is nonetheless reflected in a significant preference for core adjectives to be used as modifiers rather than as sentential predicates. Postnominal property signs are analyzed as (in most cases) reduced relative clauses. I further suggest that prototypically verbal signs can be used as prenominal modifiers when they are embedded in reduced relative clauses.