A typological study of adjective distribution: a scale structure view

A typological study of adjective distribution: a scale structure view Wenchao Li Zhejiang University This study is dedicated to how adjectives distribute in Altaic, Germanic and Sino-Tibetan languages based upon the framework ‘scale structure’. The findings reveal that the acceptability of Mongolian adjectives in resultatives runs from ‘Totally open-scale AP’ down to ‘Lower closed-scale AP, Upper-closed scale AP, Totally closed-scale AP’. Japanese adjectives are re-classified into two types, i.e. open-scale adjective (corresponding to traditional i-adjective) and closed-scale adjective (corresponding to traditional na-adjective). Both are capable of rendering an inherent result. The acceptability of APs in German direct perceptual complements runs from ‘Upper closed-scale AP/Lower closed-scale AP’ down to ‘Totally closed-scale AP/Totally open-scale AP’. English adjectives in perception expression are of no diverse acceptability. In Chinese, Upper closed-scale APs do not match well with closed-scale perceptual verbs. The ungrammaticality can be improved by supplying the expression with a tense or a syntactic context. Lower closed-scale AP does not seem capable of associating with closed-scale perceptual verbs. A proposal to treat the intra-linguistic and cross-linguistic variation is put forward, i.e. (a). Altaic languages appear to be EVENTUALITY-prominent languages. (b). Chinese and Germanic languages tend to be STATE-prominent. ISBN 9783862887880. LINCOM Studies in Language Typology 30. 108pp. 2017.