by Wang Chuming. / Publication date from spine. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 258-267). / Acknowlegements / Chapter Chapter 1. --- Semantic Structure Theory and Language Learning / Chapter 1.1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- An overview of Learnability in Language Acquisition --- p.3 / Chapter 1.2.1 --- UG and Learnability --- p.3 / Chapter 1.2.2 --- Overgeneralization --- p.7 / Chapter 1.2.3 --- Learnability in L1 Transfer --- p.8 / Chapter 1.2.4 --- L2 Studies on Learnability --- p.9 / Chapter 1.3 --- Semantic Structure Theory --- p.12 / Chapter 1.4 --- Representation of Semantic Structure --- p.15 / Chapter 1.5 --- Pinker's Theory of Language Learning --- p.17 / Chapter 1.5.1 --- Four Principles --- p.18 / Chapter 1.5.2 --- An Example --- p.22 / Chapter 1.5.3 --- Learnability and Pinker's Theory --- p.23 / Chapter 1.6 --- A Critique of Pinker's Theory of Language Learning --- p.26 / Chapter 1.7 --- The Syntactic Bootstrapping Model --- p.27 / Chapter 1.8 --- Criticisms of the Syntactic Bootstrapping Model --- p.30 / Chapter 1.9 --- A Reconciliation --- p.31 / Chapter 1.10 --- Implications for L2 Learning --- p.33 / Chapter 1.11 --- Adjectival Participles as the Target of Research --- p.35 / Chapter 1.12 --- Summary --- p.38 / Chapter Chapter 2. --- Analysis of Adjectival Participles / Chapter 2.1 --- Introduction --- p.40 / Chapter 2.2 --- Syntactic Properties --- p.41 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Inadequacy of the Syntax-based Generalization --- p.43 / Chapter 2.3 --- Syntactic Positions and Their Meanings --- p.44 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- Redefining Characterization --- p.47 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- Attributive Filter and teh Generic Context --- p.51 / Chapter 2.4 --- Change of State and Its Relevance to the Formation of Prenominal AedPs --- p.54 / Chapter 2.4.1 --- AedPs and the Middle --- p.59 / Chapter 2.4.2 --- Unaccusative Verbs --- p.61 / Chapter 2.5 --- AedPs Formed from Non-state-change Verbs --- p.63 / Chapter 2.5.1 --- The Function of the Adverbial Premodifier --- p.63 / Chapter 2.5.2 --- Effects of the Identifying Context --- p.64 / Chapter 2.5.3 --- Verbs with Implied State-change Meaning --- p.65 / Chapter 2.5.4 --- Stative Verbs --- p.67 / Chapter 2.5.5 --- Biases in Favour of AedPs with Negative Meanings --- p.68 / Chapter 2.6 --- Direct External Cause --- p.69 / Chapter 2.7 --- AingPs Formed from Intransitives --- p.70 / Chapter 2.7.1 --- The Attributive Filter and the Formation of AingPs --- p.70 / Chapter 2.7.2 --- Direct Internal Cause --- p.71 / Chapter 2.7.3 --- The Predicate Position and the Formation of AingPs --- p.72 / Chapter 2.7.4 --- Manner Verbs --- p.75 / Chapter 2.8 --- AingPs Formed from Transitives --- p.77 / Chapter 2.8.1 --- Psych Verbs --- p.77 / Chapter 2.8.2 --- Generic Experiencer --- p.79 / Chapter 2.8.3 --- The Generic Causee --- p.81 / Chapter 2.9 --- Summary --- p.85 / Chapter Chapter 3. --- Learning Adjectival Participles / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.88 / Chapter 3.2 --- A Brief Overview of Linguistic Findings --- p.88 / Chapter 3.3 --- A Comparative Study of Chinese PVMs --- p.90 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Properties of PVMs --- p.92 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- The O-category --- p.94 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- The S-category --- p.104 / Chapter 3.3.4 --- Crosslinguistic Differences and the Learning of Adjectival Participles --- p.106 / Chapter 3.3.5 --- A Model for Leaning Adjectival Participles --- p.108 / Chapter 3.3.6 --- The Role of Formal Differences --- p.110 / Chapter 3.3.7 --- The Rationale for Testing the Attributive Filter and Conflation Classes --- p.112 / Chapter 3.4 --- Summary --- p.114 / Chapter Chapter 4. --- Learners' Knowledge of Adjectival Participles / Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.115 / Chapter 4.2 --- Study1 --- p.117 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- The Linguistic Materials --- p.118 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Participants --- p.119 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Procedure --- p.121 / Chapter 4.2.4 --- Results and Discussion --- p.121 / Chapter 4.2.5 --- A Brief Summary of Study1 --- p.134 / Chapter 4.3 --- Study2 --- p.135 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Subjects --- p.135 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Materials --- p.137 / Chapter 4.3.3 --- Procedure --- p.142 / Chapter 4.3.4 --- Results and Discussion --- p.143 / Chapter 4.3.5 --- A Brief Summary of Study2 --- p.166 / Chapter 4.4 --- Study3 --- p.168 / Chapter 4.4.1 --- Subjects --- p.168 / Chapter 4.4.2 --- Materials and Procedure --- p.168 / Chapter 4.4.3 --- Results and Discussion --- p.172 / Chapter 4.4.4 --- A Brief Summary of Study3 --- p.178 / Chapter 4.5 --- Study4 --- p.178 / Chapter 4.5.1 --- Subjects --- p.180 / Chapter 4.5.2 --- Materials --- p.180 / Chapter 4.5.3 --- Procedure --- p.183 / Chapter 4.5.4 --- Results and Discussion --- p.182 / Chapter 4.5.5 --- A Brief Summary of Study4 --- p.193 / Chapter Chapter 5. --- General Discussion and Conclusions / Chapter 5.1 --- Introduction --- p.195 / Chapter 5.2 --- Learnability Revisited --- p.195 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- Acquisition of the Attributive Filter --- p.196 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- Development of Conflation Classes --- p.199 / Chapter 5.2.3 --- Negative Evidence --- p.203 / Chapter 5.2.4 --- Overgeneralization --- p.206 / Chapter 5.2.5 --- Language Transfer --- p.207 / Chapter 5.3 --- Conclusions --- p.211 / Chapter 5.3.1 --- Findings on L2 Learning --- p.212 / Chapter 5.3.2 --- Linguistic Findings --- p.213 / Chapter 5.3.3 --- Future Research --- p.214 / Notes --- p.217 / Appendix A --- p.240 / Appendix B --- p.243 / Appendix C --- p.249 / Appendix D --- p.252 / Appendix E --- p.254 / Appendix F --- p.256 / References --- p.258

This thesis documents the grammatical processes and semantic impact of innovative ways to pejoratively reference individuals through adjectival nominalization. Research on nominalized adjectives suggests that when meanings shift from having one property (1) to becoming a kind with associated properties (2), the noun form often encodes stereotypical attributes: [1] "Her hair is blonde." (hair color); [2] "He married a blonde." (female, sexy, dumb). Likewise, the linguistic phenomenon of genericity refers to classes or kinds and different grammatical structures reflect properties in different ways. In 1 and 2 above, the shift from adjectival blonde to indefinite NP a blonde moves the focus from the definitional characteristic to the prototypical. Similarly, adjectival gay [3] is definitional, but the marked, nominal form [4] adds socially-based conceptions of the "average" gay (example from Twitter): [3] jesus christ i make a joke and now im a gay man? (sexuality) [constructed]; [4] jesus christ i make a joke and now im a gay? … (flamboyant, abnormal). To investigate innovative reference via nominalization, two corpus studies based in human judgment were conducted. In the first study, a subset of the corpus (N=121) was annotated for pejoration by five additional linguists following the same guidelines as the original annotator. In the second study, 800 instances were annotated by non-experts using crowd-sourcing. In both studies we find a correspondence between nominal status and pejorative meaning.