Classification of adjectives in Dutch

This diploma thesis deals with the semantics of Dutch adjectives, their categorization and internal classification. The first section observes and analyses the criteria for delimiting adjectives as an independent word class and establishing adjectival subcategories, as dictated by the most influential Dutch grammar publications. One key area of focus is the concept of gradability and its role in delimiting and classifying adjectives. These definitions and classifications are confronted using the scalar approach, according to which adjectives represent a scale of properties and may be sorted depending on which type of scale they express. The practical section comprises a corpus study whose aim is to examine the validity of the assumptions formulated in the theoretical introduction regarding the gradability of adjectives. Using a sample of 100 adjectival lemmas with the lowest coefficient value for the likelihood of gradability, acquired from the Dutch language corpora CGN and SoNaR, the study follows a set of morphological, syntactic, semantic and discourse variables which may warrant the use of the comparative or superlative even with adjectives which are generally considered to be ungradable. The results of the analysis suggest that it is more appropriate to regard gradability as a statistical..