Deverbal modifiers of the noun in Germanic and Romance: interpretation and position

Abstract

In this paper it is argued that deverbal modifiers of the noun are mixed categories that, both in Germanic and Romance, can have various interpretations, from purely verbal to purely adjectival, with several mixed interpretations in between. If prenominal and postnominal reduced relatives, which generally are deverbal modifiers, differ slightly in interpretation, the basis for a unitary analysis such as Cinque’s (2010) analysis, merging both types within the functional projections of the noun, is lost. It is argued that only the semantically and syntactically richest deverbal modifiers, i.e. those projecting an argument that can move to the specifier of the relative clause, are necessarily in postnominal position. The less “verbal” types are merged in the functional projections of the noun. In Romance, noun movement, as in Cinque (1994), can make them surface in postnominal position.

Keywords

• deverbal modifier
• participle
• adjectival position
• -ble adjective
• reduced relative