Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-wxvwp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-15T10:36:48.940Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Typology of Adjective Linkage: Relating NPs to VPs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Thomas Berg
Thomas Berg*
Affiliation:
University of Hamburg
*
Department of English, University of Hamburg, Überseering 35, 22297 Hamburg, Germany, [thomas_berg@uni-hamburg.de]
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Adjectives have the logical options of being used predicatively or attributively as well as being conjoined syndetically or asyndetically. Moreover, attributive adjectives may occur prenominally and/or postnominally. On the basis of a sample of fifty-three languages, an analysis is performed of the interaction of syntactic function/position and type of linkage. While predicative adjectives generally prefer syndetic linkage, attributive adjectives are more open to juxtaposition. Further, postnominal attributive adjectives are more likely to be syndetically linked than prenominal ones are. The following adjective use types can be arranged from left to right on a scale of increasing sentence-likeness, which is termed ‘syntacticity’: prenominal attributive > postnominal attributive > predicative. An implicational universal is formulated to the effect that if two left-hand adjectives are syndetically linked, two adjectives to their right on the scale will be also. An attraction model is proposed which is based on the notion that like attracts like. The relevant dimension of similarity is syntacticity. The more similar the syntacticity values, the higher the probability of attraction. Because syndetic linkage is more syntactic than the asyndetic type, predicative adjectives are most likely, postnominal attributive adjectives less likely, and prenominal attributive adjectives least likely to be syndetically linked.

Keywords

adjectivecoordinationsyntacticityNP vs. VPattractionimplicational universal

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 96 , Issue 3 , September 2020, pp. 551 - 577
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 Linguistic Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

*

I cannot thank enough all of the people who have made this possible. Without the generous contributions from my native-speaker consultants, this study would not have seen the light of day. Tim Zingler has a greater share in this project than he may think. He and Günter Radden not only perceptively commented on an earlier draft but also instilled confidence in me. The reports of the referees, the associate editor, and the editor have been instrumental in bringing this work to fruition.

References

Abdoulaye, Mahamane L. 2004. Comitative, coordinating, and inclusory constructions in Hausa. Coordinating constructions, ed. by Haspelmath, Martin, 165–93. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Asher, R. E. 1985. Tamil. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Behaghel, Otto. 1909. Beziehungen zwischen Umfang und Reihenfolge von Satzgliedern. Indogermanische Forschungen 25. 110–42. DOI: 10.1515/9783110242652.110.Google Scholar
Berchem, Jörg. 1991. Referenzgrammatik des Somali. Cologne: Omimee.Google Scholar
Berg, Thomas. 2012. Structure in language: A dynamic perspective. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Berg, Thomas. 2020. Asymmetrical intercalation in Germanic complex verbs. Journal of Germanic Linguistics 32. 107–44. DOI: 10.1017/S147054271900014X.10.1017/S147054271900014XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berghäll, Liisa. 2015. A grammar of Mauwake. Berlin: Language Science. DOI: 10.17169/langsci.b67.97.10.26530/OAPEN_603339CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bidese, Ermenegildo, Padovan, Andrea; and Turolla, Claudia. 2019. Adjective orders in Cimbrian DPs. Linguistics 57. 373–94. DOI: 10.1515/ling-2019-0004.10.1515/ling-2019-0004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolinger, Dwight. 1967. Adjectives in English: Attribution and predication. Lingua 18. 1–34. DOI: 10.1016/0024-3841(67)90018-6.10.1016/0024-3841(67)90018-6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowden, John. 1997. Taba (Makian Dalam): Description of an Austronesian language from Eastern Indonesia. Melbourne: University of Melbourne dissertation. Online: http://hdl.handle.net/11343/35661.Google Scholar
Boyd, Jeremy K., and Goldberg, Adele E.. 2011. Learning what not to say: The role of statistical preemption and categorization in a-adjective production. Language 87. 55–83. DOI: 10.1353/lan.2011.0012.10.1353/lan.2011.0012CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlson, Terry. 1991. Tainae grammar essentials. Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics. Online: https://www.sil.org/resources/archives/31275.Google Scholar
Casad, Eugene H. 1984. Cora. Studies in Uto-Aztecan grammar, vol. 4: Southern Uto-Aztecan grammatical sketches, ed. by Langacker, Ronald W., 151–459. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.Google Scholar
Churchward, C. Maxwell. 1953. Tongan grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cinque, Gugliemo. 2010. The syntax of adjectives. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.10.7551/mitpress/9780262014168.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, William E., and Ross, John Robert. 1975. World order. Chicago Linguistic Society (Parasession on functionalism) 11(2). 63–111.Google Scholar
Corbett, Greville G. 1979. The agreement hierarchy. Journal of Linguistics 15. 203–24. DOI: 10.1017/S0022226700016352.10.1017/S0022226700016352CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curnow, Timothy J. 1997. A grammar of Awa Pit (Cuaiquer): An indigenous language of south-western Colombia. Canberra: The Australian National University dissertation. DOI: 10.25911/5d666a0cf3f2b.Google Scholar
Cutler, Anne. 1990. Exploiting prosodic probabilities in speech segmentation. Cognitive models of speech processing, ed. by Altmann, Gary, 105–21. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Dik, Simon C. 1968. Coordination. Amsterdam: North-Holland.Google Scholar
Dixon, R. M. W. 1977. Where have all the adjectives gone? Studies in Language 1. 19–80. DOI: 10.1075/sl.1.1.04dix.10.1075/sl.1.1.04dixCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dryer, Matthew S. 2013. Order of adjective and noun. The world atlas of language structures online, ed. by Dryer, Matthew S. and Haspelmath, Martin. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Online: https://wals.info/chapter/87.Google Scholar
Dryer, Matthew S. 2018. On the order of demonstrative, numeral, adjective, and noun. Language 94. 798–833. DOI: 10.1353/lan.2018.0054.10.1353/lan.2018.0054CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Du Feu, Veronica. 1996. Rapanui. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Durie, Mark. 1985. A grammar of Acehnese on the basis of a dialect of north Aceh. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Dürscheid, Christa. 2002. ‚Polemik satt und Wahlkampf pur'—Das postnominale Adjektiv im Deutschen. Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft 21. 57–81. DOI: 10.1515/zfsw.2002.21.1.57.10.1515/zfsw.2002.21.1.57CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldman, Harry. 1986. A grammar of Awtuw. Canberra: The Australian National University.Google Scholar
Fortescue, Michael. 1984. West Greenlandic. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Gil, David. 1993. Nominal and verbal quantification. STUF—Language Typology and Universals 46. 275–317. DOI: 10.1524/stuf.1993.46.14.275.10.1524/stuf.1993.46.14.275CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldstone, Robert L. 1994. The role of similarity in categorization: Providing a groundwork. Cognition 52. 125–57. DOI: 10.1016/0010-0277(94)90065-5.10.1016/0010-0277(94)90065-5CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gravelle, Gilles. 2004. Meyah: An East Bird's Head language of Papua, Indonesia. Amsterdam: Free University of Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Hasher, Lynn, and Zacks, Rose T.. 1984. Automatic processing of fundamental information: The case of frequency of occurrence. American Psychologist 39. 1372–28. DOI: 10.1037/0003-066X.39.12.1372.10.1037/0003-066X.39.12.1372CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haspelmath, Martin. 2007. Coordination. Language typology and syntactic description, vol. 2: Complex constructions, 2nd edn., ed. by Shopen, Timothy, 1–51. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511619434.001.Google Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin. 2013. Occurrence of nominal plurality. The world atlas of language structures online, ed. by Dryer, Matthew S. and Haspelmath, Martin. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Online: https://wals.info/chapter/34.Google Scholar
Haumann, Dagmar. 2010. Adnominal adjectives in Old English. English Language & Linguistics 14. 53–81. DOI: 10.1017/S1360674309990347.10.1017/S1360674309990347CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herreros Baroja, Tómas. 1989. Analytical sketch of the Pokot language. Trieste: Università di Trieste.Google Scholar
Hofling, Charles A. 2000. Itzaj Maya grammar. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.Google Scholar
Hollmann, Willem B. 2020. The ‘nouniness’ of attributive adjectives and ‘verbiness’ of predicative adjectives: Evidence from phonology. English Language & Linguistics, First view. DOI: 10.1017/S1360674320000015.10.1017/S1360674320000015CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobsson, Bengt. 1996. A new look at ‘predicative-only’ adjectives in English. Journal of English Linguistics 24. 206–19. DOI: 10.1177/007542429602400305.10.1177/007542429602400305CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johannessen, Janne Bondi. 1998. Coordination. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780198237099.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joseph, Brian D., and Philippaki-Warburton, Irene. 1987. Modern Greek. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Kämpfe, Hans-Rainer, and Volodin, Alexander P.. 1995. Abriss der Tschuktschischen Grammatik. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Kluge, Angela. 2017. A grammar of Papuan Malay. Berlin: Language Science. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.376415.Google Scholar
Körtvélyessy, Lívia, and Štekauer, Pavol. 2018. Postfixation and inflection inside derivation. Folia Linguistica 52. 351–81. DOI: 10.1515/flin-2018-0009.10.1515/flin-2018-0009CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lohmann, Arne. 2014. English coordinate constructions: A processing perspective on constituent order. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139644273CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martínez Fabián, Constantino. 2007. Yaqui coordination. Munich: LINCOM Europa.Google Scholar
Mauri, Caterina. 2008. Coordination relations in the languages of Europe and beyond. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110211498.10.1515/9783110211498CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLaren, James. 1944. A Xhosa grammar. London: Longmans.Google Scholar
McPherson, Laura. 2013. A grammar of Tommo So. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI: 10.1515/9783110301076.Google Scholar
Mollin, Sandra. 2014. The (ir)reversibility of English binomials. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/scl.64CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myhill, John. 1988. Categoriality and clustering. Studies in Language 12. 261–97. DOI: 10.1075/sl.12.2.02myh.10.1075/sl.12.2.02myhCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nedjalkov, Igor. 1997. Evenki. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Nordlinger, Rachel, and Sadler, Louisa. 2004. Nominal tense in crosslinguistic perspective. Language 80. 776–806. DOI: 10.1353/lan.2004.0219.10.1353/lan.2004.0219CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ohori, Toshio. 2004. Coordination in Mentalese. Coordinating constructions, ed. by Haspelmath, Martin, 41–66. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/tsl.58.04ohoCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Owens, Jonathan. 1985. A grammar of Harar Oromo (Northeastern Ethiopia). Hamburg: Buske.Google Scholar
Pensalfini, Rob. 2004. Towards a typology of configurationality. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 22. 359–408. DOI: 10.1023/B:NALA.0000015794.02583.00.10.1023/B:NALA.0000015794.02583.00CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plank, Frans, and Schellinger, Wolfgang. 1997. The uneven distribution of genders over numbers: Greenberg nos. 37 and 45. Linguistic Typology 1. 53–101. DOI: 10.1515/lity.1997.1.1.53.Google Scholar
Quintero, Carolyn. 2004. Osage grammar. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Ross, John R. 1972. The category squish: Endstation Hauptwort. Chicago Linguistic Society 8. 316–28.Google Scholar
Sadler, Louisa, and Arnold, Douglas J.. 1994. Prenominal adjectives and the phrasal/lexical distinction. Journal of Linguistics 30. 187–226. DOI: 10.1017/S0022226700016224.10.1017/S0022226700016224CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schachter, Paul. 1977. Constraints on coördination. Language 53. 86–103. DOI: 10.2307/413057.10.2307/413057CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaub, Willi. 1985. Babungo. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Schlüter, Julia. 2008. Constraints on the attributive use of ‘predicative-only’ adjectives: A reassessment. Constructional approaches to English grammar, ed. by Trousdale, Graeme and Gisbourne, Nikolas, 145–82. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110199178.2.145.Google Scholar
Shibatani, Masayoshi. 1990. The languages of Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Spencer, Katharine. 2008. Kwomtari grammar essentials. Kwomtari phonology and grammar essentials, ed. by Housberger, Murray, Housberger, Carol, and Tupper, Ian, 53–183. Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics.Google Scholar
Sproat, Richard, and Shih, Chilin. 1991. The cross-linguistic distribution of adjective ordering restrictions. Interdisciplinary approaches to language, ed. by Georgopoulos, Carol and Ishihara, Roberta, 565–93. Dordrecht: Kluwer. DOI: 10.1007/978-94-011-3818-5_30.Google Scholar
Stassen, Leon. 1997. Intransitive predication. Oxford: Clarendon.10.1093/oso/9780198236931.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stassen, Leon. 2000. And-languages and with-languages. Linguistic Typology 4. 1–54. DOI: 10.1515/lity.2000.4.1.1.10.1515/lity.2000.4.1.1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stavrou, Melita. 1996. Adjectives in Modern Greek: An instance of predication, or an old issue revisited. Journal of Linguistics 32. 79–112. DOI: 10.1017/S0022226700000773.10.1017/S0022226700000773CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevenson, R. C. 1969. Bagirmi grammar. Khartoum: Faculty of Arts, University of Khartoum.Google Scholar
Strandskogen, Åse-Berit, and Strandskogen, Rolf. 2015. Norwegian: An essential grammar. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Taylor, John R. 2009. Linguistic categorization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Terrill, Angela. 2004. Coordination in Lavukaleve. Coordinating constructions, ed. by Haspelmath, Martin, 427–43. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Teyssier, J. 1968. Notes on the syntax of the adjective in Modern English. Lingua 20. 225–49. DOI: 10.1016/0024-3841(68)90149-6.10.1016/0024-3841(68)90149-6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trefry, D. 1981. A comparative study of Kuman and Paiwan. Canberra: The Australian National University.Google Scholar
van Oirsouw, Robert R. 1987. The syntax of coordination. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Van Roey, Jacques. 1970. A note on the coordination of adjectives in English. Linguistique contemporaine, ed. by Dierickx, Jean and Lebrun, Ivan, 261–70. Bruxelles: Editions de l'Institut de Sociologie.Google Scholar
Vandelanotte, Lieven. 2002. Prenominal adjectives in English: Structures and ordering. Folia Linguistica 36. 219–59. DOI: 10.1515/flin.2002.36.3-4.219.10.1515/flin.2002.36.3-4.219CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiese, Richard. 1996. The phonology of German. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Berg supplementary material

Berg supplementary material
Download Berg supplementary material(File)
File 271.6 KB