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From participle to adjective in Germanic and Romance

Abstract

Being mixed categories, participles can be fully verbal, fully adjectival, but they can also have a mixed interpretation, viz. as resultatives, which are considered to be a second adjectival type, one that is the result of an event. Parallel to the two types of adjectival participles and the eventive one, a second type of eventive participle has been distinguished, one with an ‘eventive property’ reading. These four interpretations have been distinguished on the basis of Germanic languages, partly determined by the prenominal or postnominal position of the participle within the noun phrase. In this paper it is argued, based on the combination of the adverbs of degree très “very” and beaucoup “much” with passive/past participles in French, that participles can also have the four interpretations in Romance.

Abstract

Being mixed categories, participles can be fully verbal, fully adjectival, but they can also have a mixed interpretation, viz. as resultatives, which are considered to be a second adjectival type, one that is the result of an event. Parallel to the two types of adjectival participles and the eventive one, a second type of eventive participle has been distinguished, one with an ‘eventive property’ reading. These four interpretations have been distinguished on the basis of Germanic languages, partly determined by the prenominal or postnominal position of the participle within the noun phrase. In this paper it is argued, based on the combination of the adverbs of degree très “very” and beaucoup “much” with passive/past participles in French, that participles can also have the four interpretations in Romance.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword vii
  4. The adjective in Germanic and Romance 1
  5. Part I: Change
  6. The adjective-adverb interface in Romance and English 35
  7. The position proper of the adjective in Middle English 73
  8. Strong and weak adjectives in Old Swedish 95
  9. The resilient nature of adjectival inflection in Dutch 113
  10. Part II: Variation
  11. On the properties of attributive phrases in Germanic (and beyond) 149
  12. From participle to adjective in Germanic and Romance 171
  13. The mixed categorial behavior of cel + participle in Romanian 199
  14. Inside and outside – Before and after 217
  15. Adjectives in German and Norwegian 245
  16. Cross-linguistic variation in agreement on Germanic predicate adjectives 263
  17. Author Index 279
  18. Subject Index 283
Adjectives in Germanic and Romance
This chapter is in the book Adjectives in Germanic and Romance
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.212.07sle

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword vii
  4. The adjective in Germanic and Romance 1
  5. Part I: Change
  6. The adjective-adverb interface in Romance and English 35
  7. The position proper of the adjective in Middle English 73
  8. Strong and weak adjectives in Old Swedish 95
  9. The resilient nature of adjectival inflection in Dutch 113
  10. Part II: Variation
  11. On the properties of attributive phrases in Germanic (and beyond) 149
  12. From participle to adjective in Germanic and Romance 171
  13. The mixed categorial behavior of cel + participle in Romanian 199
  14. Inside and outside – Before and after 217
  15. Adjectives in German and Norwegian 245
  16. Cross-linguistic variation in agreement on Germanic predicate adjectives 263
  17. Author Index 279
  18. Subject Index 283
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