1. Adjective meanings

2. Adjective Meanings
Curse (2000:289) notes that adjective meanings are often one-dimensional.
Examples: thin-thick, fast-slow, cool-warm, young-old, true-false
Thickness concerns only a minor dimension, not length or width; for speed, one can ignore temperature, height, age, etc.
Such idea makes adjectives a good starting point in understanding word meaning.

3. Using language to give the meanings of words
Little – small, not big, not much
Small – little in size
Big – large in size
Much – large in quantity
Large – ample in extent
Ample – large in extent
Tiny – very small
Short – not long, small in stature, not tall
We know meaning through the language itself by having them explained to us (a when a child is told that “tiny” means “very small). This means to understand the meaning of the word there is a need to look at the “sense relations”

4. Sense relations relevant to adjectives
Entailments are propositions that follow when a given proposition is true, just as the dog’s tail follows whenever the dog comes in.
Example: If it is true that a particular person has arrived in Edinburgh, then it must be true that the person is in Edinburgh at that time and made a journey from somewhere else.
Synonyms – is equivalence of sense. The nouns mother, mom and mum are synonyms.
Andy is impudent.
Andy is cheeky.
(2.2a b) & (2.2a a)
*Andy is impudent but he isn’t cheeky.
*Andy is cheeky but he isn’t impudent.

5. Complementaries
See Figure 2.1 on page 28

6. Antonyms

7. Converses

8. Four sense relations compared

9. Meaning postulates

10. Constructions with adjectives
Gradability

11. Adjectives modifying nouns

12. Larger sets than pairs