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Project

English focusing adjectives: their function in noun phrase structure, diachronic development and theoretical implications.

Focusing adjectives, which delineate a focus value in relation to alternative values (e.g. the mere thought, pure good fortune, the village proper) are often not mentioned in existing descriptions of the English noun phrase (NP). This project aims to show that focusing adjectives serve a function in their own right, which has to be built into our synchronic and diachronic understanding of the English NP. I will study sets of adjectives from five semantic source fields, viz. uniqueness (sole, only), truth (true, very), purity (pure, mere, sheer), simplicity (simple, plain), and reality (real, actual, proper). First, I will take stock of the structural distribution of focusing adjectives within the NP, taking into account their position relative to other modifying elements and their interaction with primary determiners. Second, I will try to unravel their exact semantics and pragmatics in terms of (inter)subjectivity and scalarity and of how they relate to (the types of focusing expressed by) focusing adverbs. Third, the diachronic perspective will permit mapping out the distinct (unidirectional) pathways of semantic and grammatical change followed by focusing adjectives as well as the mechanisms driving these changes. In sum, the proposed project has a strongly descriptive, data-oriented focus, aiming to develop a structural-semantic characterization and typology of focusing adjectives, and investigate their development. At the same time, the project aims to verify existing theoretical hypotheses and formulate theoretical generalizations.
Date:1 Oct 2012 →  14 Sep 2015
Keywords:inter)subjectivity, Adjectives, Scalarity, Focusing, Noun phrase