Himalayan Linguistics

This paper discusses the exocenric construction of adjectives NP+AP in Tibetan, and points out that this kind of construction is derived from the lexicalization of phrases. According to the semantic analysis of qualia construction of Generative Lexicon Theory, NP only refers to the source, scope, shape, material and dimension etc. of the properties of AP. Type coercion together with metonymy frequently happens to NP based on AP, which causes the generalization of NP’soriginal meaning, turns NP into the argument of AP, and the whole construction is adjectivalized