Using lexical functions to describe adjectives in terminography

Abstract The status of adjectives as independent terms has been demonstrated in recent studies. However, their treatment in current terminography practice is not entirely satisfactory. This paper addresses the description of adjectives in term banks of French adjectives related to the field of renewable energy. Our goals were to conduct a corpus-driven semantic analysis of a sample of significant adjectives in this domain and to highlight some properties that should be taken into account in terminography. In particular, we used lexical functions developed within the framework of Explanatory and Combinatorial Lexicology. Our analysis shows that lexical functions are a powerful tool that can accurately define these adjectives, by showing their subtle semantic distinctions. They are also able to capture the relations between the adjective and the noun that it co-occurs with as well as systematically describe the paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations of adjectival terminological units.