Adjectiveeg

Adjectiveeg is a term used in linguistic theorizing to refer to a hypothetical subclass of adjectives characterized by their role in marking exemplars within noun phrases or sentence frames. The name is a portmanteau of "adjective" and the suffix "-eg," proposed to signal that the adjective carries an exemplar or example function, rather than a plain descriptive meaning. The term is not part of standard grammar in any widely attested language and remains primarily a theoretical or pedagogical device.

Proposed properties: In the adjectiveeg system, adjectives may bear a dedicated morphosyntactic marker, such as a suffix or clitic, to indicate that the word is illustrating a pattern (for example, a typical or representative quality). This marker could co-occur with regular degree modifiers, agreement markers, or case in languages that use rich agreement. In some constructions, adjectiveegs may appear in positions where ordinary adjectives would appear, or they may be restricted to example sentences in grammars and textbooks.

Applications and status: The concept is used mainly in teaching materials or speculative typology to discuss how adjectives can carry extra semantic or discourse function. It is not widely attested in natural language corpora and remains a hypothetical device for exploring how adjectives interact with demonstratives, exemplification, and pedagogical illustration. Researchers using adjectiveeg typically frame it as an artificial example rather than a claim about a real language.

See also: Adjectives, Demonstratives, Morphology, Syntactic annotation, Language pedagogy.