Acta Linguistica Hungarica
Volume/Issue:
Volume 63: Issue 2

Romanian adjectives at the syntax-semantics interface

Authors:
Alexandra Cornilescu University of Bucharest

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Alexandru Nicolae University of Bucharest
“Iorgu Iordan — Al. Rosetti” Institute of Linguistics, Bucharest

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Pages:
197–240
Online Publication Date:
Jun 2016
Publication Date:
01 Jun 2016
Article Category:
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1556/064.2016.63.2.3
Keywords:
DP-internal phases; interface properties; linearization; NP/DP-adjectives; modes of semantic combination
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In this paper, we argue for the existence of two local domains (phases, cf. Chomsky 2001; 2009; Legate 2003, among others) inside the DP: the n*-phase, parallel to the vP (as in Svenonius 2004), and the d*-phase, parallel to the CP. Two acknowledged phasal properties are discussed. (i) The n*/d*-phases define their own peripheries: peripheries are essentially modal-quantificational spaces, as shown by the decomposition of Topic—Focus features recently proposed (Butler 2004; McNay 2005; 2006). (ii) Phases are assumed to be domains of linearization: after (internal or external) merge, syntactic objects are hierarchical, but not linear, so phases must be linearized before they are sent to PF. The distribution and interpretation of DP-internal adjectives is taken to be indicative of these two domains.

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Acta Linguistica Hungarica
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Acta Linguistica Hungarica
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