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Associative adjectives in English and the lexicon–syntax interface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2005

HEINZ J. GIEGERICH
HEINZ J. GIEGERICH
Affiliation:
School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences University of Edinburgh
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Abstract

This article argues that of English adjective–noun constructions involving associative adjectives (‘associative AdjNs’), some originate in the lexicon and others in the syntax. While in many cases such constructions are unambiguously and for identifiable reasons located on one side or the other of the lexicon–syntax ‘divide’, variation being possible only across speakers, a range of associative AdjNs is identified which must be simultaneously, and for the same speakers, of both lexical and syntactic provenance. There is therefore no lexicon–syntax ‘divide’: the two modules overlap.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 41 , Issue 3 , November 2005 , pp. 571 - 591
Copyright
2005 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

I am very grateful to Laurie Bauer, Nik Gisborne, Tetsu Koshiishi, members of the Edinburgh English Language Research Seminar and two anonymous JL referees for a number of valuable comments on an earlier version of this paper. I address some of these comments below; others are awaiting a fuller treatment of this subject elsewhere; all were welcome, insightful and relevant (including those not addressed below).