From Psych-Nouns to Psych-Adjectives in French: Some Semantics Insights

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine the semantic properties of psychological adjectives (or in brief, psych-adjectives) in French. The main part of this work intends to determine whether or not there exists a cluster of semantic properties that can reasonably be attached to such a subclass of adjectives. To start with, this study examines the morphological configurations of such psych-adjectives, and the kinship — if any — with psych-nouns and/or psych-verbs as well. A second point will be to show that there is no one-to-one correspondence between psych-adjectives and psych-nouns, as far as semantic properties are concerned. A third point will be the study of some aspectual and temporal characteristics of psych-adjectives. Among others properties, there is no proper duration attached to the process they refer to. The last point is devoted to discuss the possible existence of ergative psych-adjectives, on the basis of some semantic properties, since it is a well-known fact that the psychological domain is closely related to problems of agentivity: the experiencer is never an agent.