THE SYNTAX OF ADJECTIVES: SOME COMPARATIVE REMARKS

Guglielmo Cinque (Univ. of Venice) – cinque@unive.it

Ealing 2009

(1)a The only Roman invasion of Thrace

b * La sola romana invasione della Tracia
c La sola invasione romana della Tracia

(2) DP

the/la
AP1
only/sola

AP2
Roman/romana NP
N
invasion/invasione (of Thrace/della Tracia)

I. Problems for N-raising

A. Existence of unexpected mirror image orders between English (Germanic) and Italian
(Romance) (Lamarche 1991, Bouchard 1998,2002, Bosque and Picallo 1996, Laenzingler 2000)

(3)a The American musical comedy of the ‘50’s (provenance > classificatory)
b *The musical American comedy of the ‘50’s

(4)a La commedia musicale americana degli Anni ’50

b *La commedia americana musicale degli Anni ’50

B. Existence of unexpected scope effects (Svenonius 1994; Bouchard 1998, 2002)

(5) E’ una giovane promessa sicura (sicura > giovane)

(s)he is a young promise sure
'(S)he is a sure young promise'

C. Inability to capture in a unitary way the pattern of interpretive differences between pre- and
postnominal adjectives in Germanic and Romance.

II. A systematic contrast between English (Germanic) and Italian (Romance)

(6)a English (Germanic) A N A

ambiguous non-ambiguous
b Italian (Romance) A N A
non-ambiguous ambiguous

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A. Enduring/Individual-level vs. Temporary/Stage-level (Bolinger 1967, Larson 1998,2000b)

English

(7)a The visible stars include Aldebaran and Sirius (ambiguous)

b ‘The stars that are generally visible include…’ (individual-level)
c ‘The stars that happen to be visible now include..’ (stage-level)

(8)a The (only) stars visible are Aldebaran and Sirius (unambiguous)
b #’The (only) stars that are generally visible are…’ (individual-level)
c ‘The (only) stars which happen to be visible now are..’ (stage-level)

Italian

(9)a Le invisibili stelle di Andromeda sono molto distanti (unambiguous)

b ‘A’s stars, which are generally invisible, are very far’ (individual-level)
c #’A’s stars, generally visible, which happen to be invisible now, are very far’ (stage-level)

(10)a Le stelle invisibili di Andromeda sono molto distanti (ambiguous)

b ‘A’s stars, which are generally invisible, are very far’ (individual-level)
c ‘A’s stars which are generally visible, but which happen to be invisible now,…’(stage-level)

B. Restrictive / non-restrictive (cf. Bolinger 1967; Larson and Marušić 2004)

English

(11)a All of his unsuitable acts were condemmed (ambiguous)

b ‘All of his acts were condemmed; they were unsuitable’ (non-restrictive)
c ‘All of his acts that were unsuitable were condemmed’ (restrictive)

(12)a Every word unsuitable was deleted (unambiguous)

b #’Every word was deleted; they were unsuitable’ (non-restrictive)
c ‘Every word that was unsuitable was deleted’ (restrictive)

Italian

(13)a Le noiose lezioni di Ferri se le ricordano tutti (unambiguous)

b ‘Everybody remembers F’s classes, all of which were boring’ (non-restrictive)
c #’Everybody remembers just F’s classes which were boring’ (restrictive)

(14)a Le lezioni noiose di Ferri se le ricordano tutti (ambiguous)

b ‘Everybody remembers F’s classes, all of which were boring’ (non-restrictive)
c ‘Everybody remembers just F’s classes which were boring’ (restrictive)

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C. Modal reading vs. implicit relative reading (Larson 2000a)

English

(15)a Mary interviewed every possible candidate (ambiguous)

b ‘Mary interviewed every potential candidate’ (modal reading)
c ‘Mary interviewed every candidate that it was possible for her to interview’ (implicit relative
reading)

(16)a Mary interviewed every candidate possible (unambiguous)

b #’Mary interviewed every potential candidate’ (modal reading)
c ‘Mary interviewed every candidate that it was possible for her to interview’ (implicit relative
reading)

Italian

(17)a Maria ha intervistato ogni possibile candidato (unambiguous)

b ‘Maria interviewed every potential candidate’ (modal reading)
c #’Maria interviewed every candidate that it was possible for her to interview’ (implicit relative
reading)

(18)a Maria ha intervistato ogni candidato possibile (ambiguous)

b ‘Maria interviewed every potential candidate’ (modal reading)
c ‘Maria interviewed every candidate that it was possible for her to interview’ (implicit relative
reading)

D. Intersective vs. non-intersective (cf.Vendler 1967; Larson 1995, 1998;…)

English

(19)a Olga is a more beautiful dancer than her instructor (ambiguous)

b ‘Olga is a dancer who is also a more beautiful person than her instructor’ (intersective)
c ‘Olga dances more beautifully than her instructor’ (nonintersective)’

(20)a Olga ia dancer more beautiful than her instructor (unambiguous)

b 'Olga is a dancer who is also a more beautiful person than her instructor' (intersective)
c #'Olga dances more beautifully than her instructor' (nonintersective)

Italian

(21)a Un buon attaccante non farebbe mai una cosa del genere (unambiguous)
b ‘A forward good at playing forward would never do such a thing’(nonintersective)
c ‘#A good-hearted forward would never do such a thing’(intersective)

(22)a Un attaccante buono non farebbe mai una cosa del genere (ambiguous)
b ‘A forward good at playing forward would never do such a thing’(nonintersective)
c ‘A good-hearted forward would never do such a thing’(intersective)

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III. Summary of the basic generalizations.

a) asymmetric distribution of interpretive possibilities:

(23)a. English (Germanic)

Prenominal adjectives N postnominal adjectives

stage-level or individual-level stage-level

restrictive or non-restrictive restrictive

implicit relative reading or modal reading implicit relative reading

intersective or non-intersective intersective

b. Italian (Romance)

Prenominal adjectives N postnominal adjectives

individual-level stage-level or individual-level

non-restrictive restrictive or non-restrictive

modal reading implicit relative reading or modal reading

non-intersective intersective or non-intersective

Other interpretive distinctions (not considered here – see Cinque forthcoming) include:

(24)a Relative (to a comparison) vs. absolute;

b Comparative vs. absolute superlatives;
c Specific vs. non-specific;
d Epistemic vs. evaluative 'unknown';
e NP dependent vs. discourse anaphoric 'different';
f Deictic vs. generic;
g Literal vs. (possible) idiomatic.

b) postnominal adjectives in English have been argued by Larson (1998,2000a,b), Larson and
Marušić (2004), and others, to be reduced relative clauses:

(25)a (Mary interviewed) every possible candidate vs. b. ..every candidate possible
..every candidate which was possible
(for her to interview)

(26)a The present representatives vs. b. The representatives present

The representatives who are/were present

(27)a The live/*alive animals vs. The animals *live/alive

The animals which are *live/alive

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c) the two readings available prenominally in English are, when cooccurring, strictly ordered
(Larson 1998, 2000a,b). The leftmost reading corresponds systematically to the postnominal
(reduced relative clause) reading, which makes it plausible to consider the two as
transformationally related (adjective from reduced relative clause > adjective with “adverbial”
interpretation > N > adjective from reduced relative clause):

stage-level > individual-level N

(28) Every (IN)VISIBLE visible star (= Every visible star (IN)VISIBLE)
(*Every visible (IN)VISIBLE star)

restrictive > non-restrictive N

(29) His MOST UNSUITABLE unsuitable acts (=His insuitable acts MOST UNSUITABLE)
(*His unsuitable MOST UNSUITABLE acts)

implicit relative reading > modal reading N

(30) She tried to interview every POSSIBLE possible candidate(=..every possible candidate
POSSIBLE) (*She tried to interview every possible POSSIBLE candidate)

intersective > non-intersective N

(31) She is a BEAUTIFUL beautiful dancer (*she is a beautiful BEAUTIFUL dancer)

d) the two readings available postnominally in Italian are strictly ordered (in the opposite way)
(N adjective with “adverbial” interpretation > adjective from reduced relative clause):

N individual-level > stage-level

(32) Le stelle visibili (IN)VISIBILI (*..(IN)VISIBILI visibili)
the stars visible (in)visible ‘the (in)visible visible stars’

N non-restrictive > restrictive

(33) I (nostri) Greci industriosi PIU’ ATTIVI (..*PIU’ ATTIVI industriosi)
our Greeks industrious most industrious ‘our most industrious industrious Greeks’

N modal reading > implicit relative reading

(34) Cercò di intervistare ogni candidato potenziale POSSIBILE (*..POSSIBILE potenziale)
He tried to interview every candidate potential possible

N non-intersective > intersective

(35) un attaccante buono BUONO (*…BUONO buono)
a forward good good ‘a good good forward’

e) summary of the general pattern of interpretative possibilities in Germanic and Romance

(36)a Germanic: As from reduced RCs > “adverbial” As > N > As from reduced RCs
b Romance: “adverbial” As > N > “adverbial” As > As from reduced RCs

The possible N-raising derivations do not yield the desired generalizations within a unified structure
for Germanic and Romance:
(37)____________________________________________________________________________
stage-level ___ individual-level N stage-level
restrictive ___ non-restrictive N restrictive
implicit relative reading ___modal interpretation N implicit relative reading
intersective ___ non-intersective N intersective

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 (38)____________________________________________________________________________
individual-level ___ stage-level N stage-level
non-restrictive ___ restrictive N restrictive
modal interpretation ___ implicit relative reading N implicit relative reading
non-intersective ___ intersective N intersective

IV. ANALYSIS
1. The two sources of adjectives:

(39) DP

FP

(Red)RC FP

AP1 FP

AP2
NP
N

semantic and syntactic properties:

(40) indirect (reduced RC) modification direct (“adverbial”) modification

[Det. [stage-level [individual-level NP]]]
[Det. [restrictive [non-restrictive NP]]]
[Det. [implicit relative reading [modal reading NP]]]
[Det. [intersective [non-intersective NP]]]

further away from the N closer to the N1

non-rigid ordering rigid ordering2

a. Indirect modification has the same readings of predicative adjectives in RCs (in particular,
restrictive and intersective readings), shows no rigid order, and is external to direct modification.
b. Direct modification has only the “adverbial” (in particular, non-restrictive, modal, and non-
intersective) readings, shows rigid order, and is closer to the N than indirect modification.

In fact, one can see this most clearly when the two types of As are morphologically distinct, as in
Maltese Arabic (Fabri 1993, 2001, Cinque forthcoming), Slovenian (Marušić and Žaucer 2006),
Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (Leko1992, Aljović 2000,2002), Thai (Sproat and Shih 1988), etc.; or
whenever only one of the two types is present, as in Yoruba (Ajíbóyè 2001) and many other
languages, where only direct modification adnominal As exist (as a closed class).

1
Cf. the typological generalization concerning the basic relative order of N/Adj/RC (Lehmann 1984,201-203; Hawkins
1990,241-243; 1994,269-274):
(i) a. RC Adj N c. *Adj RC N (also e. Adj N RC)
b. N Adj RC d. *N RC Adj (also f. RC N Adj)
2
See for example the following cases of non-predicative (hence only direct “adverbial” modification) sequences of As:
(i)a He is an occasional hard worker vs. b (*)He is a hard occasional worker
(ii)a The American economic recovery vs. b *The ecomonic American recovery

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2. A syntactic analysis of direct modification.

a) The functional nature of direct modification (as we see from those languages, like Yoruba,
where adnominal adjectives, with the properties of direct modification, constitute a closed class).

b) The phrasal nature of direct modification. In Greek and Bulgarian even (prenominal) direct
modification As can take complements and adjuncts:

(41)a o kírios kata protereótita lógos (Greek - Melita Stavrou, p.c.)

the main by priority reason ‘the main reason in terms of priority’
b glavnata po znacenie pricina (Bulgarian - Iliyana Krapova, p.c.)
main.the in significance reason ‘the main reason for importance’

In most languages they can also take modifiers:

(42)a il mio più vecchio collaboratore

my oldest collaborator
b i più alti dignitari
the highest dignitaries
c the most probable winner
d a very poor soul (Richard Kayne))

And can undergo A-bar movement (a clear sign of their phrasal status):

(43)a [[how old]k a tk friend] is he?

b [[how big]k an tk eater is he?

c) The non relative clause source of direct modification

(44) the former President < *the President is former
Deriving them from adverbs in RCs (<the x who was formerly a President) soon gets out of control:
(45)a a poor typist (<an x who types poorly)
b an early arrival (<an x which is an event of arriving early)
c the main reason (<the reason which is ...mainly...?)
d this particular spot (<a spot which is ...particularly...?)
e that very day (<a day which is...very...?)
d the only man (<the man who is..only..?)
e a shocked silence (<a silence which is out of a shock....?)
.
.
merger in the Spec of dedicated Functional Phrases.

3. A syntactic analysis of indirect modification.

(46)a Er ist ein [sein Studium seit langem hassender/*hassend] Student… (cf.Riemsdijk 1983,234)
He is a his study for a long time hating student(masc.)…
‘He is a student who has been hating his study for a long time’
b *Er ist ein Student [sein Studium seit langem hassender/hassend] …

(47)a der [kürzlich angekommene] ehemalige Botschafter von Chile (Walter Schweikert, p.c.)
the recently arrived former ambassador of Chile
b (*)der ehemalige [kürzlich angekommene] Botschafter von Chile
the former recently arrived ambassador of Chile

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(48)a diese drei [in ihren Büro arbeitenden] Männer (Walter Schweikert, p.c.)
these three in their office working men
b ??diese [in ihren Büro arbeitenden] drei Männer
these in their office working three men

(49) [DP D ...[FP NumP F [FP[reducedRC (indirect modifiers)] F [FP (direct modifiers) F NP]]]]

4. Analysis of English (Germanic)

(If we abstract for one moment from the limited cases of postnominal adjectives) nothing happens:

indir.mod. dir. mod.

(50)a Mary interviewed every póssible possible candidate
b They described every (in)visible visible star
c She is a beautiful beautiful dancer
d I want a <brówn> big <brown> dog

When the indirect modification AP is “heavy” (with complements, adjuncts,etc.), it raises to Spec,
CP (perhaps Spec,FocusP), followed by remnant movement of [FP direct modification APs NP]:

[Foc [(P) [Det. [NumP [indirect modification AP [direct modification AP [(complem.) NP]]]]]

Mary interviewed every potential candidate <?possible> (for President) <possible>

5. Analysis of Italian (Romance)

Something always happens.

Indirect modification APs (with their interpretations) always follow the N (and other direct
modification APs, if any):
dir. mod. indir. mod.
(51) Maria ha intervistato ogni personaggio politico possibile della sua città

This implies that [FP2 direct modification APs NP] in (52) raises around the indirect modification
AP in the reduced RC (like, I would claim, it raises around relative clauses, merged prenominally).

(52) DP

FP1

(Red)RC FP2

AP1 FP3

AP2
NP
N

This is rendered plausible by the fact that Romance allows no reduced relative clauses to precede
the N (as opposed to Germanic):

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(53)a The recently arrived letters
b *Le recentemente arrivate lettere

Since (most) direct modification APs also follow N, this implies that NP also raises around direct
modification APs internally to [FP2 direct modification APs NP] (as the order of postnominal direct
modification APs is the mirror image of that of English, the raising must be of the roll-up kind).
Italian (Romance) may also have the (English) raising to Spec,Foc , in which case the indirect
modification AP follows not only the NP with its direct modification APs, but also the N’s
complements: --> Maria ha intervistato ogni personaggio politico della sua città possible (lit. M.
interviewed every figure political of his town possible).

If so, more particularly:

1. The observed generalizations holding of Germanic and Romance follow:

The APs which have a reduced relative clause source, and which precede the direct modification
APs in prenominal position in English (Germanic) are found in postnominal position in Romance,
following the direct modification APs.

2. The mirror image orders between English and Romance follow (due to the two types of
rolling up movements in Romance):
indir.mod. dir.mod. dir.mod.
(55)a The American musical comedy of the ‘50’s
b The only possible Italian invasion of Albania
c She interviewed every possible potential candidate for President

dir.mod. dir.mod. indir.mod.

(56)a La commedia musicale americana degli Anni ’50
b La sola invasione italiana possibile dell’Albania
c Ha intervistato ogni candidato potenziale possibile alla presidenza

3. The existence of unexpected scope effects follows

dir.mod. dir.mod. indir.mod.
(57)a E’ una [giovane promessa] sicura (sicura > giovane)
He is a sure young promise
b E’ un [giovane scrittore] assai noto (assai noto > giovane)
He is a very well-known young writer

4. Prenominal APs in Romance are unambiguous because they can only have a direct
modification source since (reduced) relative clauses obligatorily end up postnominally in Romance
(whence their syntactic and interpretive properties): Rigid ordering and individual-level, non-
restrictive, adverbial interpretation of possibile, specificity-inducing, non-intersective, absolute.

5. Some direct modification adjectives can only be prenominal (vecchio ‘aged; of long standing’;
povero ‘pitiable’; etc.). Presumably, they are high in the hierarchy of direct modification APs and
the NP does not roll-up past them.

6. Postnominal APs in Romance are instead ambiguous because they can either arise from a direct
modification source, or from an indirect modification source.

7. Two more differences between English and Italian which follow:

9
a. In English, pronominal epithets can only have prenominal adjectives (not postnominal ones)
presumably because only prenominal ones can be interpreted non-restrictively (Stowell 1981,287):

(58) I tried to visit the mayor last week, but [the angry old man]/*[the man angry at his
constituents] refused to see me”

This is not true for Italian (Romance), where even postnominal APs can be interpreted non-
restrictively:

(59) Ho cercato di parlare con Gianni, ma [quel maledetto imbroglione]/[quell’imbroglione

maledetto] non si è fatto trovare ‘I tried to talk with G., but that damned swindler was not to be
found anywhere’

b. As noted by Sadler and Arnold (1994,194f), in English “prenominal adjective noun combinations
allow idiomatic interpretations whereas postnominal and predicative adjectives do not”. See, e.g.:

(60)a A white lie

b *A lie white in spirit
c *A lie (which) was white

In Italian both prenominal and postnominal adjectives allow for an idiomatic interpretation:

(61)a Di bassa lega (lit. ‘of low alloy ‘= vulgar/of bad taste)
b Di buon senso (lit. ‘of good sense’ = of common sense)

(62)a Ad armi pari (lit. ‘at weapons even’ = with equal chances)
b Ai ferri corti (lit. ‘at the irons short’ = in bad terms (with someone))

This follows if idiomatic readings are only possible with direct modification APs.

6. Some notes on Chinese

(1)a xiaŏ-de lü-de hua-ping

small DE green DE vase
‘a small green vase’
b lü-de xiaŏ-de hua-ping
green DE small DE vase
‘a small green vase’

(2)a xiaŏ lü hua-ping

small green vase
‘a small green vase’
b *lü xiaŏ hua-ping
green small vase
‘a small green vase’

(3)a Beijing daxue yiqian de xiaozhang (Paul 2005,fn.7)

Beijing University former DE president
‘the former president of Beijing University’
b zhuyao de daolu (cf. *daolu zhuyao ‘the road is main’) (Aoun and Li 2003,148)
main DE road
‘the main road’

1
 c weiyi de daolu (cf. *daolu weiyi ‘the road is only’) (Aoun and Li 2003,148)
only DE road
‘the only road’

(4) tā dà zuĭbà
he big mouth
‘he has a big mouth’ or ‘he is gossipy’

(5) yi-tiao hei de da gou

1 -CL black DE big dog
'one black big dog'

Sproat and Shih (1990,574) note that the nonintersective adjective wèi ‘fake’, which is also non-predicative, cannot be
followed by de

(6)a *nèifu yào wèi

‘that medicine (is) fake’
b wèi (*de) yào
‘a fake medicine’

(7) jat1 go3 lou5 ge3 lou5 pang4-jau5 (Sio 2006,123ff)

one CLF old MARKER old friend
‘an old old friend’

Moreover, as noted by Sproat and Shih (1991,571) (also see Yang 2005,218) adjectives with de can only occur outside
of de-less ones (see (8) and (9)):i

(8)a hēi-de xiăo shū (Sproat and Shih 1990,571)

black-de small book
b *xiăo hēi-de shū
small black-de book
‘small black book’

(9)a na san-ge hong de da xiu (Cheung 2005, exx.(19)a-b)

that three-classifier red DE big ball
‘those three red big balls’
b *na san-ge da hong de xiu
that three-classifier big red DE ball
‘those three big red balls’

Also see Cheung (2005) and Yang (2005,211), where it is pointed out that while adjectives with de can occur, within
the sequence Demonstrative Numeral+Classifier N, either before the Demonstrative, or in between the Demonstrative
and the Numeral+Classifier (typical relative clause positions), as well as between Numeral+Classifier and N, de-less
adjectives can only occur in the latter position.ii
Given the possibility seen above for de to occur with (some) non-predicative adjectives, one should perhaps posit the
existence of two de’s, one of which (the one also following, full or reduced, relative clauses) is necessarily pronounced;
the other (the one following direct modification adjectives) sometimes is not pronounced.
In conclusion, it seems reasonable to say that while not all direct modification adjectives are de-less, those de-less
adjectives which do not form compounds are only direct modification adjectives.

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i
The same is true of adjectives with ge in Cantonese, which have to precede bare adjectives (Sio 2006,114).
What remains to be understood is why this also holds, apparently, of combinations of two potentially non-predicative
adjectives, like those in (40), one of which is with de, and the other without.
ii
Aoun and Li (2003, Chapter 5,note 11)Yang (2005,165fn.12) and Simpson (2005,810) note that adjectives like ‘big’
or ‘small’ may occur in Chinese also between the numeral and the classifier. Apparently these are two out of a handful
of adjectives that can appear there, semantically in agreement with classifiers indicating size, shape, length (Tong Wu,
and Liejiong Xu, personal communications).