Introduction

0.1 Background of This Thesis

This thesis focuses its study on English adjectives from theperspective of the prototype theory and tries to give a unified descriptionand explanation to their semantic features as well as their syntacticfeatures. The reasons for choosing this topic for my thesis are as follows.First of all, English adjectives, together with nouns and verbs, are forthe most part regarded as one of the three basic lexical categories. Englishadjectives are traditionally defined as words which modify nouns.Generally speaking, adjectives provide various kinds of informationabout the noun they describe. English adjectives play an important part inEnglish language and English grammar. Because they help describethings and help make sentences describing things. As is well known,nouns are the commonest words in texts or fictions, the most abundant inthe dictionary, and the most productively added to the language byword-formation processes and borrowing. But there are not enough nounsto express every shade of meaning needed. For example, there is a nounto denote water, but not different special nouns for water at varioustemperatures. For another example, in the sentences Sue had hair and Suehad shiny curls of black hair, it is obvious to know that the latterexpresses more information of Sue than the former.

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0.2 Aims of This Thesis

This thesis aims to provide a consolidated description andexplanation of the semantic features and syntactic features of Englishadjectives by basing themselves on the theory of prototype. From the newview, it tries to break the limitations of the traditional approach andfetches up the drawbacks of the limitations. It will specifically answersthe following questions:

(1) What are the prototype and non-prototypes of English adjectivesas a semantic category? And what are their semantic featuresrespectively?

(2) What are the prototype and non-prototypes of English adjectivesas a syntactic category? And what are their syntactic featuresrespectively?

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Chapter 1 Literature Review

1.1 Previous Studies on English Adjectives

Previous studies on English adjectives mainly fall into two kinds:studies from the points of view of semantics and syntax. For a long time,linguists or grammarians both at home and abroad have written numerousacademic works about English adjectives. As far as their great researchachievements are concerned, they focus mainly on clarifying the usagesof them. The English word adjective maybe has come from the Latin wordadjectivum in the 14th century, if traced far enough. In Latin, ad- is a root,expressing additional meaning. It is attached to the other components ongrammar, playing the role of modification. Since the adjective is anindependent part of speech, it presents an interesting semantic behaviorand deserves much attention of the linguists and grammarians at homeand abroad.The traditional view about English adjectives is that they joint withnouns to express a quality of objects and creatures or a conceptdesignated by the nouns. Quirk (1985: 434-436) points out that adjectives are mainlystative. However, there are still many adjectives seen as dynamic. Inparticular, most adjectives that are susceptible to subjectivemeasurement are capable of being dynamic. A general semanticfeature of dynamic adjectives seems to be that they denote qualitiesthat are thought to be subject to control by the possessor and hencecan be restricted temporally. Here are some examples; brave, calm,careful, clever, friendly, etc. On the same page, he also states brieflythat most adjectives are gradable. All dynamic and most stativeadjectives are gradable. Most adjectives are inherent, that is to say,they characterize the referent of the noun directly. For example, theinherent adjective in a wooden door applies to the referent of theobject directly: a wooden door is also a wooden object.

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1.2 Comments on the Previous Studies on Adjectives

From the above section, we can get the conclusion that so far a largeamount of research has been done by the famous linguists andgrammarians at home and abroad on English adjectives, and thatremarkable achievements have been made in their studies. However, inthe meantime we can also find that there is still room for improvement. This thesis introduces the previous studies from the perspectives ofsemantics and syntax. The merits of the previous studies on Englishadjectives can be summarized as follows:To begin with, the descriptive studies of English adjectives from asemantic perspective are very enlightening, easy to understand and true tofacts. The grammarians both at home and abroad all offer a betterunderstanding of English adjectives from perspectives related withsemantics. They can help to judge whether a word belongs to adjectivesor not. They have contributed a great deal to providing a full picture ofEnglish adjectives. Especially, it has great significance when the semanticscale of PERMANENT/TEMPORARY is applicable to Englishadjectives.In the second place, previous syntactic researches of adjectives doneby modem grammarians both at home and abroad are detailed andsystematic. They are of great practical significance. By studying thesyntactic functions of adjectives, the teachers and students can analyzethe adjectives with minimum effort. And they can also reduce the risk ofmaking mistakes when they use these adjectives.Last but not least, the previous studies have laid a solid foundationand paved a new way for further exploration on English adjectives fromperspectives related with semantics and syntax.

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Chapter 3 A Prototype Study of English Adjectives........ 39

3.1 English Adjectives as a Semantic Category........ 40

3.2 Prototype of English Adjectives as a Semantic Category........43

3.3 Non-prototypes of English Adjectives as a Semantic........ 49

3.4 Summary........ 58

Chapter 4 A Prototype Study of English Adjectives as a SyntacticCategory........ 61

4.1 English Adjectives as a Syntactic Category........ 61

4.2 Prototype of English Adjectives as a Syntacti........ 65

4.2.1 Prototype of English Adjectives as a Syntactic Category........... 66

4.2.2 Syntactic Features of the Prototype........ 67

4.3 Non-prototypes of English Adjectives as a Syntactic........ 71

4.4 Summary.........81

Chapter 4 A Prototype Study of English Adjectives asa Syntactic Category

4.1 English Adjectives as a Syntactic Category

Syntax is concerned with the structure of language, which is a matterof the logical or grammatical form of sentences, rather than what theyrefer to or mean.A syntactic category is a set of words or phrases in a language whichshare a significant number of common characteristics. It is a type of yntactic unit that theories of syntax assume. All languages have syntacticcategories. The syntactic category of a word determines the role it canplay in a sentence. For example, only a noun can complete the sentence“Give a 一 to me:. The traditional parts of speech (e.g. noun, verb,preposition, adjective, etc.) are syntactic categories, and in phrasestructure grammars, the phrasal categories (e.g. noun phrase NP, verbphrase VP, prepositional phrase PP, adjective phrase AP, etc.) are alsosyntactic categories. The classification is based on similar structure andsameness of distribution (the structural relationships between theseelements and other items in a larger grammatical structure), and not onmeaning. In generative grammar, a syntactic category is symbolized by anode label in a constituent structure tree. It is also known as syntacticclass.

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Conclusion

This thesis has been devoted to apply the prototype theory to thestudy of English adjectives. In order to reach the goal, the thesis has firstmade a brief review of the previous studies on English adjectives fromthe points of view of semantics and syntax and has also presented thetheoretical foundation of the study by introducing the theory of prototype.Then, by applying this theory, the thesis has looked into the semanticfeatures and syntactic features of English adjectives and has discussed theprototypical member and non-prototypical members of English adjectivesas a semantic category and as a syntactic category. The work done in the thesis is fruitful. The major findings of thethesis can be summarized as follows:First of all, English adjectives as a semantic category reflect thecharacteristics of things. Some adjectives indicate both permanent andtemporary features, some only indicate permanent features, and there arestill some adjectives only indicate temporary features.

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Reference (omitted)