The Adjective “dà (big)” and Grammatical Analysis of “dà+N” Structure

Abstract

Adjectives can be semantically classified into intersective adjectives, which modify the whole object referred by nouns, and non-intersective adjectives, which can also modify the characteristic function of semantic structure in nouns, so ambiguous interpretation appears. The adjective “dà” (big) is consistent with the above-mentioned adjective classification. “dà” indicating large size is an intersective adjective, while “dà” indicating degree is a non-intersective adjective. Some significant differences in syntactic performance exist in “dà+N” structure with different semantic usages. In addition, nouns have descriptive and hierarchical semantic features, which causes the different semantic interpretation of “dà” in “dà zhuōzi” (big table) and “dà bèndàn” (big idiot). Moreover, the hierarchical property of nouns is consistent with the measurable concept of adjectives. Hence, the semantic structure of nouns can be described formally.

This research is sponsored by the Youth Fund Project of Humanity Social Science Research of Ministry of Education “Interactive Study on the Conceptual Semantic Construction and Grammatical Structure Realization of Chinese Nouns” and “2018 Shanghai Training Funding Program for Young Teachers”. We hereby express our sincere thanks.