Prenominal French and Uninflected Dutch Adjectives*

Abstract

AbstractThis paper proposes a uniform analysis of canonical and noncanonical French and Dutch attributive adjectives. Canonically, French adjectives are postnominal and Dutch adjectives are inflected. The noncanonical counterparts are prenominal, for French, and lacking inflection, for Dutch. A review of the literature indicates several proposed locations in the noun phrase for adjectives, and this analysis utilizes three: Spec‐Subj in the D‐layer, Spec‐Agr, and NP‐internal. Adjectives in Spec‐Agr produce a canonical reading, functioning like predicates of the noun phrase. The subjective nature of the D‐layer and the proximity of NP‐internal adjectives to N accounts for the noncanonical interpretations. The formal distinction in canonicity arises because Dutch adjective inflection is the exponent of the Agr‐head, so that only Spec‐Agr adjectives are inflected, and because French NP movement crosses the adjective in Spec‐Agr, so that only Spec‐Agr adjectives are postnominal.