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Published in:
2018 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
The Adjective “dà (big)” and Grammatical Analysis of “dà+N” Structure
Author : Qiang Li
Published in: Chinese Lexical Semantics
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
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Abstract
Adjectives can be semantically classified into intersective adjectives, which modify the whole object referred by nouns, and non-intersective adjectives, which can also modify the characteristic function of semantic structure in nouns, so ambiguous interpretation appears. The adjective “dà” (big) is consistent with the above-mentioned adjective classification. “dà” indicating large size is an intersective adjective, while “dà” indicating degree is a non-intersective adjective. Some significant differences in syntactic performance exist in “dà+N” structure with different semantic usages. In addition, nouns have descriptive and hierarchical semantic features, which causes the different semantic interpretation of “dà” in “dà zhuōzi” (big table) and “dà bèndàn” (big idiot). Moreover, the hierarchical property of nouns is consistent with the measurable concept of adjectives. Hence, the semantic structure of nouns can be described formally.