THE CONSTRUCTION OF PROPERTIES UNDER PERSPECTIVES
Renate Bartsch · Journal of Semantics · 1986
Adjectives express properties, is the traditional opinion, be it properties an individual has itself (absolute properties) or properties that it has only in relation to others (relative properties or relations). I shall show in this paper that most properties are not expressed by adjectives, rather they are denoted by them in what I call “thematic dimensions”. Properties are expressed by thematic dimensions and adjectives together. Adjectives can be used in predicative, adnominal, adverbial, or adsentential position and function. Besides elaborating the notion of ‘thematic dimension’ and explaining the relationship between properties and these dimensions, an aim of this paper is to assign suitable semantic types to adjectives and the ‘thematic dimensions’ they are used in. These serve for forming conjunctions and other combinations of thematic dimensions, and for forming conjunctions of expressions in several categories. These operations form the basis for the construction of properties under perspectives, i.e. in thematic dimensions.