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dc.contributor.authorPfaff, Alexander Peter
dc.date.accessioned2018-07-26T09:52:04Z
dc.date.available2018-07-26T09:52:04Z
dc.date.issued2017-09-25
dc.description.abstractThis article attempts to account for the distribution of Icelandic adjectival inflection in a manner that also captures a problematic case that has not been satisfactorily analyzed in the literature. It is argued that weak inflection is triggered if the adjective is c-commanded by a feature [definite]. Strong inflection occurs precisely if weak inflection is not triggered. This implementation accounts for the occurrence of strong inflection on predicative adjectives and adnominal adjectives in indefinite noun phrases, but moreover allows us to account for an unexpected pattern in Icelandic where a strongly inflected adjective occurs in a definite noun phrase. It is argued that, in this case, the adjective is not c-commanded by the definite article, but, in fact, merged outside DP. This rather unorthodox assumption motivated on morpho-syntactic grounds makes a number of syntactic and semantic predictions. In particular, adjectives that are merged outside DP are expected to modify not simply an NP (of type <e,t> ), but actually a referential expression/an individual of type e. The discussion of four instances of that strongly inflected pattern—appositives, expressives, positional predicates and little partitives—provides various kinds of evidence and shows that these expectations are indeed borne out.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipUiT The Arctic University of Norwayen_US
dc.descriptionThis is a pre-print of an article published in Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics. The final authenticated version is available online at: <a href=https://doi.org/10.1007/s10828-017-9091-3> https://doi.org/10.1007/s10828-017-9091-3</a>.en_US
dc.identifier.citationPfaff, A.P. (2017). Adjectival inflection as diagnostic for structural position: inside and outside the Icelandic definiteness domain. Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics, 20(3), 283-322. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10828-017-9091-3en_US
dc.identifier.cristinIDFRIDAID 1322224
dc.identifier.doi10.1007/s10828-017-9091-3
dc.identifier.issn1383-4924
dc.identifier.issn1572-8552
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10037/13284
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisherSpringer Verlag (Germany)en_US
dc.relation.journalJournal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics
dc.rights.accessRightsopenAccessen_US
dc.subjectVDP::Humaniora: 000::Språkvitenskapelige fag: 010::Nordiske språk: 018en_US
dc.subjectVDP::Humanities: 000::Linguistics: 010::Nordic languages: 018en_US
dc.subjectAdjectival inflectionen_US
dc.subjectIcelandicen_US
dc.subjectDefinitenessen_US
dc.subjectAppositivesen_US
dc.subjectConventional implicaturesen_US
dc.subjectPart-whole modifiersen_US
dc.subjectAgreement domainen_US
dc.titleAdjectival inflection as diagnostic for structural position: inside and outside the Icelandic definiteness domainen_US
dc.typeJournal articleen_US
dc.typeTidsskriftartikkelen_US
dc.typePeer revieweden_US


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