Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T02:32:36.148Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Adnominal adjectives in Old English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2010

DAGMAR HAUMANN
DAGMAR HAUMANN*
Affiliation:
University of Agder, Service box 422, NO-4604 Kristiansand, [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Even though adnominal adjectives in Old English are distributionally versatile in that they may precede, follow or flank the noun they modify, their positioning is not random but follows from systematic interpretive contrasts between pre- and postnominal adjectives, such as ‘attribution vs predication’, ‘individual-level vs stage-level reading’ and ‘restrictive vs non-restrictive modification’. These contrasts are largely independent of adjectival inflection (pace Fischer 2000, 2001, 2006). The placement of adnominal adjectives in Old English is investigated in relation to recent comparative and theoretical studies on word order and word order variation (see Cinque 2007; Larson & Marušič 2004).

Type
Research Article
Information
English Language & Linguistics , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , March 2010 , pp. 53 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abney, Steven. 1987. The English noun phrase in its sentential aspects. PhD dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
Alexiadou, Artemis. 2001. Adjective syntax and noun raising: word order asymmetries in the DP as the result of adjective distribution. Studia Linguistica 55, 217–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alexiadou, Artemis & Wilder, Chris (eds.). 1998. Possessors, predicates and movement in the Determiner Phrase. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alexiadou, Artemis, Haegeman, Liliane & Stavrou, Melita. 2007. Noun phrase in the generative perspective. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bermúdez-Otero, Ricardo, Denison, David, , Richard M. Hogg & McCully, C. B. (eds.). 2000. Generative theory and corpus studies: A dialogue from 10 ICEHL. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolinger, Dwight. 1967. Adjectives in English: attribution and predication. Lingua 18, 1–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolinger, Dwight. 1972. Adjective position again. Hispania 55, 91–4.Google Scholar
British National Corpus. 1995. Oxford: Oxford University Computing Services, http://sara.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/lookup.html.Google Scholar
Cinque, Guglielmo. 1994. On the evidence for partial N-movement in the Romance DP. In Cinque et al. (eds.), 85–110.Google Scholar
Cinque, Guglielmo (ed.). 2002. Functional Structure in DP and IP. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cinque, Guglielmo. 2003. The dual source of adjectives and XP- vs. N-raising in the Romance DP. Presented at NELS 34, SUNY at Stony Brook.Google Scholar
Cinque, Guglielmo. 2005. The dual source of adjectives and phrasal movement in the Romance DP. Ms, University of Venice.Google Scholar
Cinque, Guglielmo. 2007. The syntax of adjectives. A comparative study. http://hdl.handle.net/10278/883 (accessed 29 November 2008).Google Scholar
Cinque, Guglielmo, Koster, Jan, Pollock, Jean-Yves, Rizzi, Luigi & Zanuttini, Raffaella (eds.). 1994. Paths towards Universal Grammar: Studies in honor of Richard S. Kayne. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Coene, Martine & D'Hulst, Yves (eds.). 2003. From NP to DP, vol. I: The syntax and semantics of noun phrases. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Dictionary of Old English Corpus. 2000. Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto.Google Scholar
Dimitrova-Vulchanova, Mila. 2003. Modification in the Balkan nominal expression. In Coene & D'Hulst (eds.), 91–118.Google Scholar
Dimitrova-Vulchanova, Mila & Giusti, Giuliana. 1998. Fragments of Balkan nominal structure. In Alexiadou & Wilder (eds.), 333–60.Google Scholar
Duncan, Erin, Farkas, Donca & Spaelti, Philip (eds.). 1995. The proceedings of the twelfth West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics. Stanford, CA: Center for the Study of Language (CSLI).Google Scholar
Fischer, Olga & Nänny, Max (eds.). 2001. The motivated sign: Iconicity in language and literature 2. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischer, Olga. 2000. The position of the adjective in Old English. In Bermúdez-Otero et al. (eds.), 153–81.Google Scholar
Fischer, Olga. 2001. The position of the adjective in (Old) English from an iconic perspective. In Fischer & Nänny (eds.), 249–76.Google Scholar
Fischer, Olga. 2006. On the position of adjectives in Middle English. English Language and Linguistics 10, 253–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischer, Olga, Kemenade, Ans van, Koopman, Willem & Wurff, Wim van der. 2000. The syntax of early English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Frascarelli, Mara (ed.). 2006. Phases of interpretation. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giusti, Giuliana. 2002. The functional structure of noun phrases: a bare phrase structure approach. In Cinque (ed.), 54–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giusti, Giuliana. 2006. Parallels in clausal and nominal periphery. In Frascarelli (ed.), 163–84.Google Scholar
Haumann, Dagmar. 2003. The postnominal ‘and adjective’ construction in Old English. English Language and Linguistics 7, 57–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hogg, Richard M. (ed.). 1992. The Cambridge history of the English language, vol. 1: The beginnings to 1066. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Julien, Marit. 2005. Nominal phrases from a Scandinavian perspective. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kayne, Richard. 1994. The antisymmetry of syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Kishimoto, Hideki. 2000. Indefinite pronouns and overt N-raising. Linguistic Inquiry 31, 557–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laenzlinger, Christopher. 2004. French adjective ordering: Perspectives on DP-internal movement types. Lingua 115, 645–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laenzlinger, Christopher. 2005. Some notes on DP-internal movement. Generative Grammar in Geneva 4, 227–60.Google Scholar
Larson, Richard K. 1998. Events and modification in nominals. In Strolovitch & Lawson (eds.), 145–68.Google Scholar
Larson, Richard K. 2002. ACD in AP?. http://semlab5.sbs.sunysb.edu/~rlarson/wccfl19.pdf (accessed 29 July 2008).Google Scholar
Larson, Richard K. & Marušič, Franc. 2004. On indefinite pronoun structures with APs: Reply to Kishimoto. Linguistic Inquiry 35, 268–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larson, Richard K. & Takahashi, Naoko. 2004. Order & interpretation in prenominal relative clauses. http://semlab5.sbs.sunysb.edu/~rlarson/wafl2.pdf (accessed 16 July 2008).Google Scholar
Larson, Richard K. & Yamakido, Hiroko. 2008. Ezafe and the deep position of nominal modifiers. In McNally & Kennedy (eds.), 43–70.Google Scholar
Lightfoot, David. 1979. Principles of diachronic syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McNally, Louise & Kennedy, Chris (eds.). 2008. Adjectives and adverbs: Syntax, semantics, and discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, Bruce. 1985. Old English syntax, vol. I. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quirk, R. & Wrenn, Charles L.. 1955. An Old English grammar. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Sadler, Louisa & Arnold, Douglas J.. 1994. Prenominal adjectives and the phrasal/lexical distinction. Journal of Linguistics 30, 187–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sørensen, Knud. 1956. Substantive with two epithets. English Studies 37, 261–4.Google Scholar
Spamer, James B. 1979. The development of the definite article in English: A case study of syntactic change. Glossa 13, 241–50.Google Scholar
Stavrou, Melita. 1996. Adjectives in Modern Greek: An instance of predication, or an old issue revisited. Journal of Linguistics 32, 79–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strolovitch, Devon & Lawson, Aaron (eds.). 1998. Proceedings from Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT) VIII. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.Google Scholar
Svenonius, Peter. 1995. The structural location of the attributive adjective. In Duncan, Farkas & Spaelti (eds.), 438–54.Google Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs. 1992. Syntax. In Hogg (ed.), 168–289.Google Scholar