John Benjamins Publishing Company
On the properties of attributive phrases in Germanic (and beyond)
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Abstract
The syntactic structure of attributive constructions and their (corresponding) semantic integration into nominal projections is the subject of a long-standing debate. In this article, we focus on complex attributes in German, Dutch and Standard Arabic. We argue that adjectival, participial and relative clauses attributes are all essentially predicative structures embedded under a special kind of phase head. Morphophonologically, this head is realized as the (alleged) case, number and gender endings on the adjective/participle and on the relative clause marker. Crucially, we argue that these endings are not agreement suffixes, contrary to common assumptions: rather, they are probing heads whose features identify an argument in the attributive structure. The properties attributed to the head noun are derived from the properties predicated of this argument. This analysis also defines a number of properties along which attributive phase heads can vary, yielding a number of typologically attested types of attributive structures.
Abstract
The syntactic structure of attributive constructions and their (corresponding) semantic integration into nominal projections is the subject of a long-standing debate. In this article, we focus on complex attributes in German, Dutch and Standard Arabic. We argue that adjectival, participial and relative clauses attributes are all essentially predicative structures embedded under a special kind of phase head. Morphophonologically, this head is realized as the (alleged) case, number and gender endings on the adjective/participle and on the relative clause marker. Crucially, we argue that these endings are not agreement suffixes, contrary to common assumptions: rather, they are probing heads whose features identify an argument in the attributive structure. The properties attributed to the head noun are derived from the properties predicated of this argument. This analysis also defines a number of properties along which attributive phase heads can vary, yielding a number of typologically attested types of attributive structures.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- The adjective in Germanic and Romance 1
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Part I: Change
- The adjective-adverb interface in Romance and English 35
- The position proper of the adjective in Middle English 73
- Strong and weak adjectives in Old Swedish 95
- The resilient nature of adjectival inflection in Dutch 113
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Part II: Variation
- On the properties of attributive phrases in Germanic (and beyond) 149
- From participle to adjective in Germanic and Romance 171
- The mixed categorial behavior of cel + participle in Romanian 199
- Inside and outside – Before and after 217
- Adjectives in German and Norwegian 245
- Cross-linguistic variation in agreement on Germanic predicate adjectives 263
- Author Index 279
- Subject Index 283
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- The adjective in Germanic and Romance 1
-
Part I: Change
- The adjective-adverb interface in Romance and English 35
- The position proper of the adjective in Middle English 73
- Strong and weak adjectives in Old Swedish 95
- The resilient nature of adjectival inflection in Dutch 113
-
Part II: Variation
- On the properties of attributive phrases in Germanic (and beyond) 149
- From participle to adjective in Germanic and Romance 171
- The mixed categorial behavior of cel + participle in Romanian 199
- Inside and outside – Before and after 217
- Adjectives in German and Norwegian 245
- Cross-linguistic variation in agreement on Germanic predicate adjectives 263
- Author Index 279
- Subject Index 283
