The cognitive and grammatical aspects of the evaluative use of dobar

Abstract

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.

U radu se opisuje semantičko-sintaksičko ponašanje pridevskog izraza dobar (-a, -o) u savremenom (standardnom) srpskom. Utvrđuje se da je taj izraz sposoban da otelotvori sobom različite pojmovno-gramatičke jedinice uključujući čak i takve koje, na pojmovnoj razini, oličavaju sobom determinativnu jedinicu priloškog tipa, semantizovanu pod nekim okolnostima u kvalifikatorskom, a pod nekim u kvantifikatorskom smislu. Razmotreno činjenično stanje, ukoliko ga budu ubuduće pominjali gramatički opisi namenjeni nastavi srpskog, biće od nesumnjive pomoći strancima opredeljenim za to da što bolje savladaju taj jezik, a lingvisti teoretičari, psiholozi i antropolozi, uvidima u njega, dobiće korisne podatke za svoja zaključivanja o tome po kojim se sve principima ustrojavaju kognitivni procesi.