THE EXTENDED STRUCTURE OF GRADABLE ADJECTIVES IN ENGLISH AND ROMANIAN
THE EXTENDED STRUCTURE OF GRADABLE ADJECTIVES IN ENGLISH AND ROMANIAN

Summary/Abstract: Starting from the fact that gradability is an important category for the description of AP, we discuss the internal and external syntax of the extended AP (xAP). In this respect it is important to see if an adjective has among its arguments one of the type <d> (degree) as this influences its syntax and semantics. The syntax of attributive AP is influenced by their ability to combine with measure phrases or DegPs. We can analyze degree words as a split system of Degs and Qs for which we find independent evidence in the distribution of degree expressions and their semantics or we consider degree words as the constituents of degree modification. This assumption leads to a system where the extended adjectival structure has a DegP which is in fact a quantifier over degrees (QDeg) with a complex internal structure. By assuming this flexible structure we can provide a unitary analysis of the degree expressions cross-linguistically.

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