SEMANTICS OF DEVERBAL ADJECTIVES IN ENGLISH

抄録

A framework is proposed by which to examine the semantics of deverbal adjectives in the -ing, -en and -able forms in terms of correspondence between the argument structure of verbs and that of deverbal adjectives with special attention paid to the -ing adjectives. Verbs from which those adjectives are derived are classified into four groups according to the differences revealed by the proposed framework: (i) intransitive verbs, (ii) transitive verbs with obligatory objects, (iii) transitive verbs with deletable objects and (iv) transitive verbs capable of incorporating Generic Category, a new concept proposed in this paper.