
The cognitive and grammatical aspects of the evaluative use of dobar
Author(s) -
Milka Ivić
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
južnoslovenski filolog
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2406-0763
pISSN - 0350-185X
DOI - 10.2298/jfi0561001i
Subject(s) - attributive , adjective , serbian , adverbial , psychology , linguistics , noun , praise , property (philosophy) , quality (philosophy) , grammatical gender , grammar , cognition , social psychology , epistemology , philosophy , neuroscience
Drawing on a corpus of conversational Standard Serbian materials, the author examines the ways in which the adjective dobar performs its evaluative function. She points to the following hitherto unnoticed facts: If the evaluation concerns an adult human being dobar is perceived as a moral quality, whereas to say of a child that he is dobar is to praise his behavioral property. If nomina professionalis are concerned, although syntactically used as an attributive adjective, dobar semantically functions in fact as an adverbial modifier disclosing the appropriate performance of the activities which make the person under consideration properly qualified for his/her occupation