Syntactic positions of attributive adjectives (pre-final) (original) (raw)

What the prosody of Serbian short and long form adjectives tells us about the nominal structure

What the prosody of Serbian short and long form adjectives tells us about the nominal structure * The paper tests the predictions of two competing views of the nominal structure, the DP-Parameter Hypothesis and the Universal DP Hypothesis, in the domain of the prosodic behavior of the long and short form adjectives in Serbian. The prediction of the former is that both types of adjectives will prosodically behave the same, and similar to the noun. The prediction of the latter is that long form adjectives will pattern with determiner words and short form adjectives with nouns. The testing, using relative clause paraphrases of adjectives, supported the Universal DP Hypothesis, as it fully confirmed its predictions.

Adjective Hierarchy: Comparing the Order of Adjectives in the Prenominal Field in English and Czech

In From Theory to Practice 2013: Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Anglophone Studies, September 5–6, 2013. Trušník, Roman, Bell, Gregory Jason, and Nemčoková. Katarína (eds) 39-62. Zlín: Univerzita Tomáše Bati ve Zlíně. ISBN978-80-7454-450-7; ISSN1805-9899., 2015

Abstract: This paper discusses the ordering of prenominal modifiers in Czech. Surveying first several traditional proposals of existing universal or English specific hierarchies, it concentrates on the proposal presented in Scott (2002) and attested to also for Russian by Pereltsvaig (2007). The study searches for data in the Czech national corpus to demonstrate that the orderings inside Czech nominal complexes are as restricted as the ones in English and Russian and follow the same specific hierarchy. The Czech data also confirm the distinction between the strict orderings of elements in the functional domain and the more relaxed orderings in the modifier domain. The semantic hierarchy of syntactic adjuncts is therefore proposed as more suitable for adjective premodifiers than an analysis assuming a string of universally-ordered syntactic functional heads.

A Third Type of Adjective Modification? Evidence for DP in Serbo-Croatian

In this paper I argue that, in addition to Cinque’s (2010) direct and indirect modification, there is also a third type of adjective modification, analyzed higher, at the left periphery of DP. A closed set of Serbo-Croatian (S-C) adjectives (such as pomenuti/navedeni “mentioned” and izvesni/određeni “certain”), after being merged as indirect modification adjectives, move to a structural position, where they value d-features, providing the co‑locutor with information about the referential (pomenuti/navedeni “mentioned”) or epistemic (izvesni/određeni “certain”) aspects of the denotation of an expression. These adjectives always precede other adjectives, including superlatives and comparatives, and they must bear the long, so-called “definite aspect” form. Moreover, they can serve as a barrier for left-branch and adjunct extraction in their referential/epistemic reading. Finally, these adjectives can precede short-form adjectives, a fact not previously discussed in the literature. It is concluded that there is a functional projection above S-C NPs that is sensitive to discourse properties.

Adjectives at the left periphery as an indication of a DP in Serbo-Croatian

The paper proposes a determiner phrase (henceforth DP) analysis of nominal expressions in article-less Serbo-Croatian, arguing that, besides Cinque's (2010) indirect and direct modification adjectives, there is also a third type of modification at the left periphery. The acceptability of pseudo-oxymoronic phrases such as novi stari (narodnjački) hit 'a new/another old (folk) hit' indicates that the two antonymous adjectives should be analyzed at different functional projections. A closed set of analyzed adjectives, in their relevant interpretations, value d-features, always precede other adjectives, including comparatives and superlatives, as well cardinal/collective numbers, and, most importantly, they block left branch extraction. The mentioned empirical facts suggest that these adjectives might be positioned in the hypothesized determiner phrase.