Navigation – Plan du site

AccueilNuméros34Measure phrases as modifiers of a...

Measure phrases as modifiers of adjectives

Roger Schwarzschild
p. 207-228

Résumé

In some languages, measure phrases can appear with non-compared adjectives : 5 feet tall. I address three questions about this construction: (a) Is the measure phrase an argument of the adjective or an adjunct? (b) What are we to make of the markedness of this construction *142lbs heavy? (c) Why is it that the markedness disappears once the adjective is put in the comparative (2 inches taller alongside 2lbs heavier)? I claim that because degree arguments are ‘functional’, the measure phrase has to be an adjunct and not a syntactic argument of the adjective. Like event modifiers in extended NPs and in VPs, the measure phrase predicates of a degree argument of the adjective. But given the kind of meaning a measure phrase must have to do its job in comparatives and elsewhere, it is not of the right type to directly predicate of a degree argument. I propose a lexically governed type-shift which applies to some adjectives allowing them to combine with a measure phrase.

Haut de page

Pour citer cet article

Référence papier

Roger Schwarzschild, « Measure phrases as modifiers of adjectives »Recherches linguistiques de Vincennes, 34 | 2005, 207-228.

Référence électronique

Roger Schwarzschild, « Measure phrases as modifiers of adjectives »Recherches linguistiques de Vincennes [En ligne], 34 | 2005, mis en ligne le 22 décembre 2006, consulté le 29 mars 2024. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/rlv/1401 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/rlv.1401

Haut de page

Auteur

Roger Schwarzschild

Rutgers University

Haut de page

Droits d’auteur

Le texte et les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés), sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire.

Haut de page
Search OpenEdition Search

You will be redirected to OpenEdition Search