Intersective modifier

In semantics, an intersective adjective is an adjective that when modifying a noun results in a noun of the same class.

For example, a red book is still a book, a beautiful dancer is still a dancer.

However, a fake tree is not a tree, and an alleged criminal may not be a criminal.

In general, given adjective A and noun N, if the noun phrase A+N is an N, then A is intersective.

Anti-intersective adjectives are a special case of non-intersective adjectives, where the resulting instance is definitely not an instance of the former noun, as with the fake tree.

There are different kinds of intersectives:

1. pure intersective: blue book; the set of blue things and the set of books are not equal and are said to intersect purely
2. subsective: beautiful skater; the person can be beautiful and a skater, or the person can skate beautifully; in the latter case, the adjective qualifies the kind of skater the person is (rather than add non-intersective information); this is known as a subsective adjective; in this case 'beautiful' can be either subsective or pure intersective depending on interpretation (semantic ambiguity)
   1. relative subsective: big toddler or small elephant; such adjectives are gradable—the baby can be big for a toddler, or the elephant can be small for an elephant

The opposite class includes non-intersective adjectives, things like supposed, probable, alleged, etc. where the resulting noun may or may not be an instance of the original noun.

See also

• https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/intersective#Adjective