身体経験を通じて発見される性質と名詞派生形容詞メタファー

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to observe the semantic difference between denominal adjectives such as powdery and fluffy and unmarked adjectives such as soft and light, and to demonstrate that the properties of the denominal adjectives are brought by the incorporation of the ‘subject as experiencer’ into the immediate scope of the expression. As has been suggested by Tamaru (2015), denominal adjectives are used to describe properties of an entity metaphorically. Furthermore, this paper shows that they are mainly used when someone encounters remarkable properties of an entity through his or her own bodily experience and interactions with environment. This leads to assume that, in addition to the ‘subject as conceptualizer’ as Cognitive Grammar has proposed (Langacker 1990), the ‘subject as experiencer’ is required in order to characterize the semantic function of denominal adjectives. Eventually this paper suggests the theoretical importance of the recognition of ‘subject as experiencer’ in discussing the issue of subjectivity.