LINGUIST List 8.1089

Sat Jul 26 1997

FYI: Acceptability of English Adjectives

Editor for this issue: Brett Churchill <brettlinguistlist.org>

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1. kristi lynne coburn, Acceptability of English Adjectives

	I am going to use a different marking system, A for acceptable, U 
for unacceptable, and there are none which I am unsure about. I have also 
added WHY they are unacceptable to me.
	By the way, I am a native of Seattle.




> Dear Linguists,
> 
> About a week ago I posted the following query.
> 
> >I am working on English adjectives. Are the following sentences
> >acceptable? If acceptable, please mark them with a check.
> >If not acceptable, please mark them with a cross. If uncertain
> >or dubious, please mark them with a question mark. Any
> >comment is welcome.
> >
>A >(1) John was careful to lock the door.
>U >(2) John was greedy to keep all the money to himself.
	Ifyou change the preposition to for, then it's acceptable to me
>A >(3) John was worthy to be praised by them all.
>A >(4) The place is convenient to visit.
>A >(5) John is jealous that she succeeded.
>A >(6) John was bored to hear her endless talk.
>A >(7) John was confused to be told to do so many things at once.
>A >(8) John was hurt to be insulted.
>U >(9) I am eager that they should win.
	for them to win, jproblem with using a modal

>A >(10) John was incredulous that Mary put it into practice.
>U >(11) Mary is keen that we should go.
	British, again, keen is a problem for me, but I won't count that 
in deciding if it's acceptable or not since it's only a lexical 
difference. However, the ues of the modal here is wrong for me (by the 
way, I spent a year in France teaching English in a French University, so 
I am familiar with the British system.
>A >(12) It was heroic of them to oppose the invader. 
>U >(13) John was irresponsible to sabotage his duties.
	can't sabatoge duties
>A >(14) It is significant that they worked as volunteers.
>A >(15) It is sufficient to give him some money.
>U >(16) It is not suitable to dress casual at a wedding reception.
> 	casually 

> I have received 17 replies. I would like to thank those who gave
> wme answers and comments. The following is the numbers of informants
> who indicated respective acceptability in each sentence.
> 
> acceptable dubious/ unacceptable
> uncertain
> (1) 16 1 0
> (2) 7 4 6
> (3) 7 7 3
> (4) 15 1 1
> (5) 13 3 1
> (6) 8 2 7
> (7) 6 3 8
> (8) 7 2 8
> (9) 11 4 2
> (10) 15 2 0
> (11) 11 3 3
> (12) 16 0 1
> (13) 6 3 8
> (14) 17 0 0
> (15) 16 1 0
> (16) 10 1 6
> 
> Part of discussion and analysis of this data will be presented by
> Professor Katsumasa Yagi (Kwansei Gakuin University, JAPAN) at the
> 24th LACUS Forum to be held at the University of York, Toronto,
> Ontario, Canada on 2nd August and in his subsequent papers.
> 
> - ----------------------------------------
> Atsuko Umesaki(Tezukayama College)
> e-mail:SGS03312niftyserve.or.jp
> umesakitezukayama-u.ac.jp
> - ---------------------------------------
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------