Adjectives modifying nouns

How are noun and adjective meanings put together when an adjective modifies a noun as in green bicycles? Just enough will be said here to show that interesting issues arise in this area. A simple interpretation in terms of the intersection of sets, as depicted in Figure 2.3, will work in some cases.

In Figure 2.3, the left-hand oval represents the set denoted by green, all the green entities that there could be. The right-hand oval represents the set of entities denoted by bicycle, all bicycles.

The intersection of the two ovals encompasses things that are included in both sets, things that are green and also bicycles. This is a satisfactory enough account of how these two meanings are put together. Adjectives that fit this scheme of interpretation are called intersective adjectives.

Some adjectives are straightforwardly non-intersective: former, imaginary, fake. Former champions are no longer denoted in an uncomplicated way by the word champion; a fake Stradivarius is not a Stradivarius. Lappin (2001) gives a short overview of some proposals in formal semantics for handling such cases.

Two further types of non-intersective modification will be mentioned here. One class arises from what can be called relative adjectives (Cruse 2000: 290). Two examples are given in (2.23).

The problem for an intersective account of modification with small or big, wide or narrow, or any of numerous other relative adjectives is that the adjective is interpreted relative to the norms of the entities denoted by the noun: ‘big as molecules go’, ‘narrow when compared to an average shipping lane’.

Another set of cases where an intersective explanation of modification is not feasible is illustrated by the ambiguity of (2.24).

One can use (2.24) either to describe someone who is skilled at politicking, whether or not one approves of him as a person, or of someone who is good and happens to be a politician, whether or not he is competent in the practice of politics. The first meaning appears to rely on there being characteristic roles, duties, activities or functions for certain classes of people: a politician engages in politics, an embroiderer embroiders, a farmer farms, a plumber installs and repairs water systems. Now some adjectives can be taken as qualifying the extent to which the characteristic role is carried out (on this reading the best politician is the one who practises politics best). There is an ambiguity if the same adjective could also be used to describe the nature of people as people (the best politician could be understood as the most virtuous one). When the noun denotes something inanimate, then the only interpretation is likely to be the one in which its function is qualified by the adjective, for example a good shovel is one that is better than averagely suited for shovelling.