Adjectives very often determine the polarity of an utterance. This paper studies the role of conjunctions in the analysis of adjective polarity. The study is being performed on Czech language on the basis of an existing algorithm for English. The algorithm has been modified in order to reflect the differences between the two typologically different languages. The results of the original and mod...

Given the two sentences “this fake cat has a fluffy tail” and “this tabby cat has a fluffy tail”, only the second allows one to conclude that “there exists a cat that has a fluffy tail”. As is obvious to a native English speaker, the adjective (A) “fake” somehow modifies the noun (N) “cat” such that we conclude that it no longer belongs to the set of N (cats) by virtue of being A (fake). Lingui...

Evidence from infants and toddlers, and from preschool children learning either English, French, or Spanish as their first language are summarized to reveal the emergence of specific linkages between linguistic and conceptual development. The data suggest that infants begin the process of word learning with a general expectation that words (independent of the linguistic form) refer to objects a...

The paper presents a corpus-based comparative study of denominal adjectives in Dutch, German, and English. It aims at clarifying the notion approximation. More specifically, it focuses on investigating relation between approximation comparison as semantic categories word-formation. Drawing equivalent patterns, we both approximative readings various word-formation patterns (derivation compoundin...

This paper treats the classification of the semantic functions performed by adnominal constituents in Japanese, where many parts of speech act as adnominal constituents. In order to establish a formal treatment of the semantic roles, the similarities and differences among adnominal constituents, i.e. adjectives and "noun + NO (in English "of + noun")" structures, which have a broad range of sem...

Approaches to morphology typically account for regular, completely productive aaxation, while ignoring sub-regular and semi-productive schemata. I present an alternative approach to derivational morphology which relates exceptions and sub-regularities to the productive rules, and also captures some linguistically relevant generalizations that cannot be expressed in other theories. The data come...