Adjective Syntax and Noun Raising: Word Order Asymmetries in the DP as the Result of Adjective Distribution

Abstract

The paper investigates the triggers and the motivation for noun raising in combination with the interpretation and placement of adjectives within the DP across languages. I point out that first the nature of noun movement is empirically and conceptually problematic. Second, the post‐nominal position of adjectives in languages for which it has been argued to result from noun movement is consistent with an analysis of those that capitalizes on their predicative source. Thus the cross‐linguistic asymmetry concerning the relative order of nouns with respect to adjectives has its source in the syntactic configurations available in UG for adjectival modification and is not a result of syntactic head raising within the DP.

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