Adjectives as roots of nominal groups: the big mess construction in dependency grammar
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Timothy Osborne
Abstract
The so-called ‘Big Mess Construction’ (BMC) frustrates standard assumptions about the structure of nominal groups. The normal position of an attributive adjective is after the determiner and before the noun, but in the BMC, the adjective precedes the determiner, e.g. that strange a sound, so big a scandal, too lame an excuse. Previous accounts of the BMC are couched in ‘Phrase Structure Grammar’ (PSG) and view the noun or the determiner (or the preposition of) as the root/head of the BMC phrase. In contrast, the current approach, which is couched in a ‘Dependency Grammar’ (DG) model, argues that the adjective is in fact the root/head of the phrase. A number of insights point to the adjective as the root/head, the most important of which is the optional appearance of the preposition of, e.g. that strange of a sound, so big of a scandal, too lame of an excuse.
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Artikel in diesem Heft
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Endoclitics in Andi
- When-clauses and temporal meanings across languages
- The complexity and history of verb-stem ablauting patterns in Siyuewu Khroskyabs
- Profile of reflexives in Hill Mari
- Alternations of classificatory verb stems in Tłı̨chǫ Yatıì: a cognitive semantic account
- Is there really an aspectual se in Spanish?
- Adjectives as roots of nominal groups: the big mess construction in dependency grammar
- Book Reviews
- Focus manifestation in Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese: A comparative perspective
- Johanita, Kirsten: Written Afrikaans since standardization: A century of change
- Eye-tracking: A guide for applied linguistics research
- Variation in Indonesian Sign Language: A typological and sociolinguistic analysis
- Staging language: Place and identity in the enactment, performance and representation of regional dialects
- Language, gender and sexuality: An introduction
- Non-lexical pragmatics: Time, causality and logical words
- A multi-locus analysis of Arabic negation: Micro-variation in Southern Levantine, Gulf and Standard Arabic
- A critical introduction to language evolution: Current controversies and future prospects
