THE MOST FREQUENT MEANINGS OF NOUN PHRASES WITH SIMPLE OR DERIVED PREMODIFYING ADJECTIVES

Abstract

Contemporary linguistic practice usually compares the frequency of premodifying adjectives and premodifying nouns and concludes that premodifying adjectives are in most cases more frequent. Premodifying adjectives are also known as being efficient mechanisms for bringing additional information into the phrase structure. The aim of this paper is to show the most frequent meanings of noun phrases containing simple or derived premodifying adjectives, and also to present what sort of information is added to noun phrases when they have adjectives as premodifers. Using analytic and descriptive methods, we analysed examples taken from the newspaper register and concluded that premodifying adjectives, simple or derived, brought typical, adjective specific information into the phrase structure. Their ability to leave little or no space for misinterpretation of the phrase meaning while bringing additional information makes them so frequent in English.

Key words: adjectives, simple premodifying adjectives, derived premodifying adjectives,  semantic relation