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The Syntax of Adjectives: A Comparative Study

Online ISBN:
9780262289306
Print ISBN:
9780262014168
Publisher:
The MIT Press
Book

The Syntax of Adjectives: A Comparative Study

Published online:
22 August 2013
Published in print:
30 July 2010
Online ISBN:
9780262289306
Print ISBN:
9780262014168
Publisher:
The MIT Press

Abstract

This book offers cross-linguistic evidence that adjectives have two sources. Arguing against the standard view, and reconsidering his own earlier analysis, the author proposes that adjectives enter the nominal phase either as “adverbial” modifiers to the noun or as predicates of reduced relative clauses. Some of his evidence comes from a systematic comparison between Romance and Germanic languages. These two language families differ with respect to the canonical position taken by adjectives, which is prenominal in Germanic and both pre- and postnominal in Romance. The author shows that a simple N(oun)-raising analysis encounters a number of problems, the primary one of which is its inability to express a fundamental generalization governing the interpretation of pre- and postnominal adjectives in the two language families. He argues that N-raising as such should be abandoned in favor of XP-raising—a conclusion also supported by evidence from other language families. After developing this framework for analyzing the syntax of adjectives, the author applies it to the syntax of English and Italian adjectives. An appendix offers a brief discussion of other languages that appear to distinguish overtly between the two sources of adjectives.

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