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Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 16: Selected papers from the 47th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL), Newark, Delaware
Edited by Irene Vogel
[Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 16] 2020
► pp. 171–186

The syntax of superlative phrases in Romance

| UCLA

In this paper, prenominal and postnominal superlatives in Romance are argued not to differ as a result of NP-movement (or lack thereof) to cross the adjective, but to result from two different derivations. In prenominal superlatives, the adjective is attracted to a high scope position in the DP-area of numerals where it can’t be bypassed by the NP. In postnominal superlatives, the superlative starts out as a predicate (a maximalizing relative clause over degrees) and it ends up postnominal (as any other relative clause in Romance).

Keywords: superlatives, French, Italian, adnominal modification, DP structure, degree phrases, definiteness
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Prenominal superlatives
    • 2.1Cinque’s (2010) dual source model
    • 2.2A movement analysis of prenominal superlatives
    • 2.3Elliptical superlatives as attributive superlatives
    • 2.4Attributive superlatives are individual-based superlatives
    • 2.5Summary
  • 3.Postnominal superlatives
    • 3.1Kayne’s (2008) analysis
    • 3.2My current proposal: Postnominal superlatives as predicates
    • 3.3Why not a null noun
    • 3.4The composition of postnominal superlatives
    • 3.5Summary
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 21 August 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/rllt.16.11loc
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