Syntax

1. Syntax Lecture 12: Adjectival Phrases

2. 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

3. 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]

4. Adjectives as heads and their complements

5. 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

6. The Specifier of AP

7. 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

8. Measure phrases as DegP specifiers

9. 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

10. 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)

11. The Specifier of AP

12. 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!

14. Problems • Very has the ability to iterate • He is very veryvery sorry • Other specifiers don’t do this: • * John JohnJohn is tall • * Who whowho did you see • * the few fewfew men • Adjuncts are recursive (so there can be any number of them) – but they are not iterative: • * a tall talltall man • * he ran quickly quicklyquickly

15. 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

16. Problems • Although the analysis of very as a specifier faces problems, it is perhaps less problematic than the alternatives.

17. 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

18. The DegP

19. 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

20. Bound morpheme Deg

21. 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

22. 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: • zhangsangaozhangsan tall = zhangsan is taller • zhangsan hen gaozhangsan very tall = zhangsan is tall

23. 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

24. 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.