Abstract
When adverbs are used to evaluate certain events, the assumptions of the even stage and the fixed order among adverbs are made regardless of differences in the choice of words. The purpose of the present study was to test this assumption about the subjective magnitude of the adverb measured by two evaluation methods (i.e., the paired-comparison method as the discrimination scaling method and the graphical scale method as the partition scaling method). The adverbs used in this study were selected from ones used frequently in the evaluation of the vocational rehabilitation. The adverbs included 4 teido-fukushi (i.e., 'yaya' 'hikakuteki' 'aruteido' 'kanari') and 4 joutai-fukushi (i.e., 'hotondo' 'hobo' 'yoku' 'oomune'). Two types of verbs followed the target adverbs: (1) verbs that express ability ('dekiru (be able to)' --- 'dekinai (not be able to)') and (2) verbs expressing progress ('susumu (advance)' --- 'okureru (lab behind)'). In order to compare the subjective magnitude of the adverb obtained by both evaluation methods, it was transformed into fuzzy measure. As a result, it was suggested that the partition scaling measure value is more appropriate as measured value of the subjective magnitude of the target adverb, and that there is a problem in the hypothesis of the discrimination scaling method that the variability expressed in the psychological unit is constant on psychological continuum. The present study's findings also suggested that the subjective magnitude change depending on the evaluation method of words.
