The Concept of the Relative Adjective

of relative adjectives, and the specifi c character of their semantic processes. A er
a brief discussion of the adjectival character of the relative subclass, it will be argued
that denominal relative adjectives belong to the class of predicate words (i.e., words
denoting property and hence forming a predicate concept), while retaining, on the
other hand, the substantive nature of the basic noun’s concept. Further, two subclasses
of relative adjectives are contrasted in view of their cognitive processes: substancepredicate,
denoting a certain substance of which an object is made, and argumentpredicate,
denoting an object the relation to which becomes a property of another
object.  e substance-predicate group of relative adjectives will be analyzed as having
the properties of qualitative adjectives, as they clarify their meanings in discourse due
to the operation of profi ling the landmark properties on the base of the trajector of
the described object. On the other hand, the conceptual entity of argument-predicate
relative adjectives can be described by means of the theory of conceptual integration.
Argument-predicate adjectives in discourse form a new conceptual blend that is the
result of mapping the mental spaces of the predicate concept and the concept of the
described noun.  e relation between the two objects that appears in the blend forms
the context meaning of the adjective.