Constraints Of Scale Structures On Chinese Adjectives' Syntactic Behaviors

Introducing degree feature to semantic researches,degree semantics redefines semantic function of adjectives and establishes a close link between adjectives and scale structures.Based on typology of scale structures and measurement theory,this thesis addresses a systematic classification of Chinese adjectives.The analysis about constraints of scale structures on Chinese adjectives' syntactic behaviors is carried out after exploring syntactic behaviors of different categories of adjectives.Combining mathematical characteristics and closure state of scale structures,this thesis classifies scale structures into seven types: nominal scale,totally open ordinal scale,lower closed interval scale,upper closed interval scale,totally closed interval scale,totally open interval scale and lower closed ratio scale.Accordingly,there are seven kinds of adjectives: nominal adjectives,totally open ordinal adjectives,lower closed interval adjectives,upper closed interval adjectives,totally closed interval adjectives,totally open interval adjectives and lower closed ratio adjectives.Six types of syntactic behaviors are taken into consideration when exploring constraints of scale structures: ?.being modified by degree adverbs;?.being modified by measure phrase;?.appearing in comparison structure;?.being negated by “bu ‘not'” ?.coming together with “de1” or “de2” when serving as predicate,attribute and complement;?.being followed by dynamic markers like aspect ‘le',“qilai ‘up'” or “xialai ‘down'”.The syntactic behaviors of different kinds of adjectives are various,which is influenced by the following four aspects.The first is whether the degree mapped by adjectives on scale is fixed or not.If it is fixed,adjectives are not supposed to be modified by any degree adverbs or measure phrases.And,they cannot be negated by “bu ‘not'”.It is impossible for them to be applied to any dynamic structures.What's more,they have strict requirements to use “de1” or “de2” when functioning as predicate,attribute and complementThe second is whether the scale is continuous or sequential or not.A continuous and sequential scale makes adjectives appear in comparison structures possible.The third is whether the scale has endpoints or not.The endpoints on the scale decide what kinds of degree adverbs are available to different categories of adjectives.In addition,adjectives with upper closed scale can also come together with “xialai ‘down'”.The four is whether the scale has non-arbitrary zero point or not.The minimum value of lower closed ratio scale is non-arbitrary zero point,which allows lower closed ratio adjectives to be modified by measure phrases.