Qualia-Structure of German From-Ethnonymic Adjectives (based on <i>deutsch</i> Lexeme)

Abstract

The article is devoted to revealing the hidden meanings of the from-ethnonymic adjective deutsch, which are not recorded in modern German lexicographic sources as separate meanings. They can be identified using the methodology for determining qualia structures developed by J. Pustejovsky. Agentive, constitutive, formal and telic meanings (or attributes) of the qualia structure can be identified in each from-ethnonymic adjective. Authoritative authentic explanatory dictionaries of the German served as the material for the study. The revealed values of the qualia structure are divided into nuclear, subnuclear and peripheral. Core semes implement permanent and mandatory attributes of an object, while peripheral semes are optional or nonpermanent. The values represented in all five dictionaries form the core. It has been established that nuclear semes implement only agentive attributes of objects. Values that were not indicated in all dictionaries or were identified on the basis of the analysis of the examples given in the dictionary entry constitute the nuclear zone. This zone includes formal and constitutive meanings. Meanings that do not have correspondences in dictionary definitions or are revealed during the analysis of examples in dictionary entries form the periphery of the field of lexicographic meanings of from-ethnonymic adjective. Such meanings are manifested by the telic attributes of the qualia structure.