• Dutch
  • Frisian
  • Saterfrisian
  • Afrikaans
Show all
23.3.2.3.A morphological classification
quickinfo

From a morphological point of view, set-denoting adjectives are undoubtedly the largest class of adjectives. In fact, a description of the morphological properties of these adjectives covers practically all productive word formation processes from which adjectives can be derived. Since we do not intend to give a complete description of Dutch morphology, the small sample in (119) should suffice to illustrate these processes; cf. De Haas & Trommelen (1993) and Booij (2002/2015a) for more comprehensive descriptions.

119 Morphological classes of set-denoting adjectives
type example translation
Simple adjectives aardig
mooi
nice
beautiful
Compounds N+A bloedmooi (blood + beautiful)
boterzacht (butter + soft)

soft as butter
V+A fonkelnieuw (sparkle + new)
spilziek (waste + ill)
brand-new
wasteful
A+A donkerrood (dark + red)
stomdronken (mute + drunk)
deep red
dead drunk
P+A intriest (in + sad)
doornat (through + wet)
very sad
drenched
Derived adjectives denominal deugdzaam (virtue + affix)
rotsachtig (rock + affix)
virtuous
rocky
deverbal zwijgzaam (be.silent + affix)
weigerachtig (refuse + affix)
reticent
recalcitrant
deadjectival gel(er)ig (yellow + affix)
ziekelijk (ill + affix)
yellowish
sickly
deadpositional achterlijk (behind + affix)
voorlijk (in.front + affix)
retarded
precocious

Instead of giving a complete description of the morphological categories that can be used as set-denoting adjectives, it is easier to list the morphological categories that cannot readily be used as such: these constitute the subset of denominal adjectives that are used as relational adjectives; cf. Section 23.3.3. This complementarity shows that the semantic distinction between set-denoting and relational adjectives also has a morphological reflex.

readmore
References:
    report errorprintcite