Characterization of adjectival -ed and -ing forms of psychological verbs in English

Abstract

Abstract This study examines for the first time a very large set of psychological verbs and their derived adjectives in English. To determine whether an item is an adjective or not, we take the standard structural criteria of morphological (-ly or un-), morpho-syntactic (very, -er/-est or more/most) and syntactic (seem, look, or feel) characteristics. As for the data, we selected three data bases and gathered those containing certain items in specific contexts, such as whether the item in question takes a -ly or un- affix, or a comparative or superlative form, or follows seem, look or feel. We took dictionaries as our source of criteria in checking whether an item was perceived to be an adjective. As a result, we found some hierarchy within adjectives as to whether they take morphological, morpho-syntactic, or syntactic characteristics. The most powerful determinant of adjectives is the morphological characteristic -ly.