The Syntax of Adjectives: A Comparative Study

221 Pages·2010·2.12 MB·English

by  Guglielmo Cinque

The Syntax of Adjectives
Linguistic Inquiry Monographs
SamuelJay Keyser, general editor
Acompletelistof bookspublishedintheLinguisticInquiryMonographs
series appears at the back of this book.
The Syntax of Adjectives
A ComparativeStudy
Guglielmo Cinque
TheMITPress
Cambridge,Massachusetts
London,England
62010MassachusettsInstituteofTechnology
Allrights reserved. Nopart of thisbook maybereproduced inanyform by any
electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or informa-
tionstorageandretrieval)withoutpermissioninwritingfromthepublisher.
For information about special quantity discounts, please e-mail special_sales@
mitpress.mit.edu
ThisbookwassetinTimesNewRomanandSyntaxon3B2byAscoTypesetters,
HongKong.PrintedandboundintheUnitedStatesofAmerica.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Cinque,Guglielmo.
Thesyntaxofadjectives:acomparativestudy/GuglielmoCinque.
p. cm.—(Linguisticinquirymonographs)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindexes.
ISBN978-0-262-01416-8(hardcover:alk.paper)—ISBN978-0-262-51426-2
(pbk.:alk.paper) 1.Grammar,Comparativeandgeneral—Adjective.
2.Grammar,Comparativeandgeneral—Syntax. I.Title.
P273.C56 2010
4150.5—dc22 2009043836
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
A Iliyana

Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xiii
1 ProblemsforNMovementinRomance 1
1.1 AnApparentRestrictionontheNumberofPostnominalAdjectives
inRomance 1
1.2 ExistenceofUnexpectedMirror-ImageOrdersbetweenGermanic
andRomance 2
1.3 ExistenceofUnexpectedScopeE¤ectsinRomance 3
2 ASystematicContrastbetweenEnglish(Germanic)andItalian
(Romance) 5
2.1 Individual-Levelvs.Stage-LevelReadings 6
2.2 Restrictivevs.NonrestrictiveReadings 7
2.3 Modalvs.ImplicitRelativeClauseReadings 8
2.4 Intersectivevs.Nonintersective(Adverbial)Readings 9
2.5 Relative(toaComparisonClass)vs.AbsoluteReadings 10
2.6 Comparativevs.AbsoluteReadingsofSuperlatives 11
2.7 Specificity-vs.Non-Specificity-InducingReadings 12
2.8 Evaluativevs.EpistemicReadingsof‘unknown’ 14
2.9 NP-Dependentvs.DiscourseAnaphoricReadingsof‘di¤erent’ 15
2.10 SummaryoftheBasicGeneralizations 16
2.11 AnAdditionalProblemfortheN-MovementAnalysis 22
3 PhrasalMovementandtheTwoSourcesofAdnominalAdjectives 25
3.1 TheTwoSourcesofAdnominalAdjectives 25
3.2 ASummaryoftheInterpretivePropertiesAssociatedwithEach
Source 26
3.3 APreviewoftheSyntacticPropertiesAssociatedwithEach
Source 28
3.4 SummaryoftheSemanticandSyntacticPropertiesoftheTwo
Sources 33
viii Contents
3.5 SomeCrosslinguisticandAcquisitionalEvidencefortheDualSource
ofAdnominalAdjectives 34
3.6 PhrasalMovementOverHeadMovementorBaseGeneration 37
4 AnAnalysisoftheTwoSourcesofAdjectives 43
4.1 ASyntacticAnalysisofDirectModificationAdjectives 43
4.2 ASyntacticAnalysisofIndirectModificationAdjectives 54
5 AnAnalysisofEnglish(Germanic) 57
5.1 PrenominalAdjectivesinEnglish(Germanic) 57
5.2 PostnominalAdjectivesinEnglish(Germanic)andTheir
Derivation 59
5.3 APotentialProblem 61
5.4 AReducedRelativeClauseSourceforPrenominalParticiples 64
5.5 SomethingFunny 65
6 AnAnalysisofItalian(Romance) 69
6.1 PrenominalandPostnominalAdjectivesinItalian(Romance) 69
6.2 ThePositionofPPComplementsandAdjunctsvis-a`-visAdjectivesin
Italian(Romance) 79
6.3 ThePositionofDemonstrativeReinforcersvis-a`-visAdjectivesin
Italian(Romance) 82
6.4 AdjectivesAfterceluiinFrench 84
7 FurtherDifferencesbetweenEnglish(Germanic)andItalian(Romance) 87
7.1 EpithetswithPrenominalandPostnominalAdjectives 87
7.2 IdiomaticReadingswithPrenominalandPostnominal
Adjectives 87
7.3 AConstraintonRomancePrenominalAdjectives 88
Conclusion 91
Appendix:FurtherEvidencefortheDualSourceofAdnominal
Adjectives 95
A.1 Chinese 95
A.2 Maltese 98
A.3 Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 99
A.4 Romanian 102
A.5 Greek 104
A.6 SomeNotesonRussianandGerman 108
Notes 113
References 151
NameIndex 187
SubjectIndex 193
Series Foreword
We are pleased to present the fifty-seventh in the series Linguistic Inquiry
Monographs. These monographs present new and original research be-
yondthescopeofthearticle.Wehopetheywillbenefitourfieldbybring-
ing to it perspectives thatwill stimulate further research and insight.
Originally published in limited edition, the Linguistic Inquiry Mono-
graphsare now morewidelyavailable. Thischange isdue to the great in-
terest engendered by the series and by the needs of a growing readership.
The editors thank the readers for their support and welcome suggestions
aboutfuturedirections fortheseries.
SamuelJayKeyser
for the Editorial Board