Syntax

Lecture 12:Adjectival Phrases

Introduction

• Adjectives, like any other word, must conform to X-bar principles

• We expect them – to be heads– to take complements– to have specifiers– to be modified by adjuncts

Adjectives as heads and their complements

• That adjectives head APs is not at all problematic– The AP always contains an adjective and it distributes

like no other phrase• He is [very tall] * He is [very]• The [really tall] building * the [really] building

• Adjectives are mostly ‘intransitive’ or take PP or clausal complements:– red; big; round; sad; etc.– fond [PP of chocolate]; keen [PP on horticulture]– certain [CP that he is correct]; anxious [CP PRO to leave]

Adjectives as heads and their complements

The Specifier of AP

• There are a number of possible candidates for AP specifiers:– Degree adverbs

• E.g.– So tall– As tall– Too tall

– However• These elements are related to adjectives in a similar way that

determiners are related to nouns• Like determiners, they consist of single words and don’t appear to

be phrases• This suggests that, like determiners, they are heads not specifiers

The Specifier of AP

The Specifier of AP• There are a number of possible candidates for AP

specifiers:– Measure phrases

• E.g.– [Five miles] long– [One hour] late

– These are obviously phrases, so they are better suited to be analysed as specifiers. But:• They appear in the wrong place with respect to the degree

adverbs– Five miles too long– * Too five miles long

• They are better analysed as specifiers of Deg rather than A

Measure phrases as DegP specifiers

The Specifier of AP

• There are a number of possible candidates for AP specifiers:– Other modifiers

• E.g.– So very boring– So typically predictable

– These are in the right order to be AP specifiers. But:• They can co-occur

– So very typically predictable– So typically very boring

– This would suggest that they are adjuncts, not specifiers

The Specifier of AP– However, there is a difference in these examples:

• So [[very typically] boring]• So [typically [very boring]]

– Interestingly, we can’t have the other interpretations:• * so [very [typically boring]]• * so [[typically very] boring]

– This indicates that there are two different kinds of modifiers here:• Extent modifiers: very• Adverbial modifiers: typically

– We can account for their different distributions by assuming:• Extent modifiers are specifiers of AP• Adverbial modifiers are AP adjuncts (adjoined to AP)

The Specifier of AP

Problems

• Specifiers are phrases– But it is not easy to argue that very is a phrase

• However, if it is not a specifier, but a head, it would be difficult to provide an unproblematic analysis– What category is it?

• If it is Deg, why is it not in complementary distribution with other Degs?

– if it’s a head, not only do we not know what the specifier of AP is, but we also have a missing specifier of the phrase headed by very!

Problems

• Very has the ability to iterate– He is very very very sorry

• Other specifiers don’t do this:– * John John John is tall– * Who who who did you see– * the few few few men

• Adjuncts are recursive (so there can be any number of them) – but they are not iterative:– * a tall tall tall man– * he ran quickly quickly quickly

Problems• The only other things that iterate are:– Many and really– These have certain phonological and semantic things

in common, though they are not syntactically similar• Very = modifies A, follows other modifiers• Many = post determiner (i.e. A)• Really = modifies A or V, precedes very

– He is really very nice– He really hates garlic

– Perhaps the ability to iterate has more to do with phonology and semantics and should not be seen as a syntactic phenomena

Problems• Although the analysis of very as a specifier

faces problems, it is perhaps less problematic than the alternatives.

The DegP

• As we have seen, the DegP is similar to the DP in that it is a functional projection on top of a thematic structure.

• The DegP obviously has a degree adverb (so, too, as, etc.) as its head and takes an AP complement

• We have also seen that measure phrases go in its specifier

• There are also adjunct modifiers which attach to DegP rather than AP– Clearly five miles too wide of the target

The DegP

Bound morpheme Deg heads

• Deg, as a functional head, fits into the same class as determiners, inflections and complementisers.

• It shares some properties with inflections in that, like tense, it can be a bound morpheme– More sure of himself Sure-er of himself– Most keen on chess keen-est on chess

• Like tense, the comparative and superlative morphemes trigger the thematic head (adjective) to move to support them

Bound morpheme Deg

The phonologically empty Deg• Adjectives don’t always appear with degree

adverbs• But they still have the same distribution as

phrases headed by Deg:– He is [too tall] he is [tall]– A [too tall] man a [tall] man

• It follows that both phrases are of the same category– Presumably DegP

• So, some DegPs are headed by an abstract Deg

The phonologically empty Deg• What evidence is there that there is a covert Deg?• Adjectives which are not marked for comparative or

superlative are said to be positive• We might argue that the abstract Deg marks positive,

as opposed to comparative or superlative• While most languages have positive adjectives

morphologically unmarked, it has been claimed that Chinese has an unmarked comparative and a marked positive:– zhangsan gao

zhangsan tall = zhangsan is taller– zhangsan hen gao

zhangsan very tall = zhangsan is tall

Conclusion

• Adjectival phrases have a very similar structure to nominal phrases and clauses– They are all headed by a functional element– Which takes a thematic complement

Conclusion

• Similar to the inflection, Deg has free and bound variants (too, -er)

• Therefore, similar to the IP, there may be head movement within DegP (A Deg)

• Both DegP and AP have a full range of complements, specifiers and adjuncts, so they fully conform to X-bar predictions.