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<p>Elbourne has proposed that future research should investigate the possibility of eliminating syntactic categories from linguistic theory and letting their functions be taken over by independently motivated semantic categories such as semantic types (‘A program for eliminating syntactic categories’, <CitationRef CitationID="CR31">2024</CitationRef>, <i>Linguistic Inquiry</i>). The current article applies this research programme to the case of adjectives. It argues that adjectives should be conceived of as functions from noun denotations to noun denotations (a unique type). Adjectives in predicative position are dealt with by giving a suitable denotation to the copula. Various arguments against this analysis of adjectives are reviewed and dismissed.</p>

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Adjectives without syntactic categories

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年3月12日

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  • Paul Elbourne

摘要

Elbourne has proposed that future research should investigate the possibility of eliminating syntactic categories from linguistic theory and letting their functions be taken over by independently motivated semantic categories such as semantic types (‘A program for eliminating syntactic categories’, 2024, Linguistic Inquiry). The current article applies this research programme to the case of adjectives. It argues that adjectives should be conceived of as functions from noun denotations to noun denotations (a unique type). Adjectives in predicative position are dealt with by giving a suitable denotation to the copula. Various arguments against this analysis of adjectives are reviewed and dismissed.