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Synthetic -BLE compounds VS. -BLE adjectives: Issues in the external and internal syntax

  • Sebastian Wasak EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: October 20, 2022

Abstract

The subject matter of this paper is the external and internal syntax of adjectival compounds based on -ble adjectives in English (e.g. vaccine-preventable, machine-readable, drug-susceptible) and passive potential adjectives in Polish (e.g. łatwopalny ‘combustible’, lekkostrawny ‘lit. easily digestible, light’, szybkozmywalny ‘quickly-washable’), with special attention paid to whether the syntactic behaviour exhibited by -ble and -ny/-alny adjectives is also present in compounds headed by them. Drawing on analysis put forth by Oltra-Massuet (2013), the present research departs from Oltra-Massuet's account in that certain ble adjectives which show irregular morphology (e.g. visible, tolerable) are interpreted as high (eventive) -ble adjectives. It is shown that while synthetic -ble compounds in English inherit the syntactic features of their heads, passive potential adjectives in Polish often lose the ability to project the external argument upon being merged with a modifier to form a compound.


Sebastian Wasak Faculty of Humanities John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin Al. Racławickie 14 20-950 Lublin Poland

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Published Online: 2022-10-20
Published in Print: 2022-09-27

© 2022 Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland

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