Parts Of Speech Typology Under Study Modern Chinese Adjectives

In the research of linguistic typology, Mandarin is alway viewed as a direct evidence for theargument that the class of adjectives is not a universal of human languages，because in manylinguistic works the class of adjectives in Mandarin is viewed as a subcategory of verbs. In thelinguistic research of Chinese scholars, although the term “adjectives” is highly accepted andwidely spread, scholars always emphasize that adjectives in Mandarin could occur in thepredicative slot in sentences, and that adjectives and verbs should bound together. Thus, it is hardto say that the class of adjectives in Mandarin is an independent category which is distinguishedfrom the class of verbs. In present linguistic works, it is common to discuss adjectives in Mandarinwhich express property concepts and their syntactic behaviour in modifier slot and predicative slot.Obviously the argument is influenced by grammar system based on Latin and English grammar. InMandarin, the class of adjectives includes words that express stative concepts, and those wordswill affect how scholars evaluate the class of adjectives. Although scholars always emphasize todistinguish words information from syntax, internal structures of words apparently affect thejudgment of the class of adjectives. Regarding standards to categorization, there are two theories,one is categorial universalism, the other is categorial particularism. This paper aims at discusstheoretical models of categorization under the theoretical frame of categorial particularism, andhow scholars view the class of adjectives and relative issues. The paper aims to show that thereshould be an independent class of adjectives in Mandarin, the reason is that, although adjectives inMandarin could be in the predicative slot without the occurrence of the copula “shì”, the class ofadjectives still can be distinguished from verbs according to their syntactic behaviours.