Influence of the model of use of adjectival and adverbial predicate modifiers in mexican scholars narrative

Authors

  • Luisa Josefina Alarcón Neve Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro

Abstract

Predicative adjectives resemble adverbs of manner as states and action evaluators in narrative discourse. In romance languages, it prefers adjectives as depictive secondary predicates and adverbs with the form –ment(e) in formal and written register, but it prefers adverbial adjectives in oral and informal register (Hummel, 2000). This study shows how Mexican young students have assumed this model of use of these predicate modifiers through comparing predicative adjectives and adverbs of manner in three corpus: 82 narrative texts from scholar reading books; 76 oral and written stories created by 38 students in the last level of Mexican Basic Education; 38 oral personal stories. It is demonstrated that these students have assumed those used differences, basically contrast between formal and informal production.

Keywords:

predicative adjectives, depictive secondary predication, adverbs of manner