SOME ASPECTS OF ADJECTIVE MODIFICATION:
A CASE STUDY OF ATTRIBUTIVE ADJECTIVES IN POLISH

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the relation between the position of an
attributive adjective in the nominal complex and the semantic
interpretation it receives. The existence of various adjective positions
is manifested by their relative order with respect to one another as
well as with respect to the head noun. Whereas adjectives occurring
before the head noun strongly tend to be interpreted as qualifying,
adjectives in post-position to the noun strongly tend to be interpreted
as classifying (‘relational’). In line with recent studies in a number
of (un)related languages it will be suggested here that the variation in
adjective positions in the nominal complex does not follow from
parametric variation of modifier positions in the nominal complex but
rather, that it follows from the syntactic raising of the noun past one
specifier position hosting an adjective in Polish. Hence, both the A+N
and the N+A sequences will be analysed here as syntactic constructions.
Some arguments against analysing the N+A sequences (e.g. ogrod
zoologiczny) as morphological objects, as in, among others, Topolinska
(1984), will be presented.

Following Sproat and Shih (1988) it will be suggested here that the
preference hierarchy for the inclusion of adjective modifiers in the
extended syntactic projection of the noun is not determined
grammatically but rather, that such a hierarchy is cognitively-based and
orders adjectives expressing more absolute properties before those
expressing relative properties. If the semantic function of classifying
adjectives is to set up a taxonomy of which they are lexical indicators,
their interpretation involves fewer computations than the interpretation
of qualifying adjectives, which involve comparisons and more
computations. The relative ordering of qualifying before classifying
adjectives will be argued to be determined by scope relations. On the
overt N-raising approach to the syntax of Polish noun phrases it follows
that the adjective passed by the raising noun is of a classifying kind.
To account for constructions such as deskrypcja okreslona zupe?na, it
will be suggested here that apart from being generated in the specifier
position to distinct functional heads in the extended syntactic
projection of the noun, adjectives can also be generated with a
predicative function in the nominal complex in Polish, for example in
reduced copular structures internal to NP.