On the Semantics of Adjectives
On the Semantics of Adjectives

Summary/Abstract: The paper proposes to give an account of the semantics of adjectives within a framework of formal semantics. Three logical types of adjectives are discussed: intersective, subsective and intensional, the first two being predicative, the last nonpredicative (together with the subsective adjectives, the last make up the class of nonintersective adjectives). It is argued that intersective and subsective adjectives, which describe properties, combine with the property expressed by the nouns they modify, restricting the set denoted by these nouns (black dog, big dog). Unlike these types, intensional adjectives do not express properties, but behave like operators: they modify the properties expressed by the nouns to which they apply (e.g., spy, winner), and thus the noun phrase describes new properties (e.g., alleged spy, probable winner), whose extension is a function of the intension of the unmodified noun.

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