Deriving color adjectival nominalizations
Abstract
In this paper I examine two types of nominalizations related to color adjectives in Greek, a suffixed one and a neutral one, which I will compare to their English and Dutch (and German) counterparts. I show that the two differ in that suffixed nominalizations denote stage level properties, while neuter nominalizations denote individual level properties. This difference is due to the fact that suffixed nominalizations are count nouns, while neuter nominalizations are mass nouns. A comparison between Greek, and Dutch/German and English shows that languages have different nominalization strategies: nominalization can take place at three layers: at the root level, at the nP level, and finally at the DP level. This explains the differences in distribution and interpretation among the different nominalization types across languages.
References
Alexiadou, A. 2001. Functional structure in nominals: nominalization and ergativity. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Alexiadou, A., G. Iordăchioaia & F. Schäfer. 2011. Scaling the variation in Romance and Germanic nominalizations. In: P. Sleeman & H. Peridon (Eds.). The noun phrase in Romance and Germanic. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 25-40.
Alexiadou, A. &. Iordăchioaia, D. Marzo & B. Umbreit. 2012. Comparing lexicalist and syntactic insights on deadjectival nominalizations. Paper presented at BCGL 7, Brussels, December 2012.
Arad, M. 2005. Roots and patterns. Springer: Dordrecht.
Borer, H. 2005. Structuring sense vol. I: In name only. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Bowers, J. 1993. The syntax of predication. Linguistic Inquiry. 24 (4): 591-656.
Embick, D. 2010. Localism vs. Globalism in Morphology and Phonology. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Giannakidou, A. & M. Stavrou. 1999. Nominalization and ellipsis in the Greek DP. The Linguistic Review. 16: 295-331.
Husband, E. 2006. Stage-level/individual-level predicates and aspect. Ms. Michigan State University. Iordăchioaia, G. to appear. The interaction between NP and DP in nominalizations. Proceedings of NELS 43.
Kennedy, C. & L. McNally. 2010. Color, context and compositionality. Synthese 174: 79-98.
Marantz, A. 2001/To appear. Words and Things. Ms., MIT & NyU.
Martin, F. 2010. Stage-level and individual level readings of quality nouns: a study in aspectual morpho-semantics. Paper presented at Going Romance 23, Leiden, December 2010.
McNally, L. 2011. Color terms: a case study in natural language ontology. Paper presented at the Workshop on the syntax and semantics of nounhood and adjectivehood. Barcelona, March 2011.
McNally, L. & H. de Swart. 2011. Inflection and derivation: how adjectives and nouns refer to abstract objects. Proceedings of the 18th Amsterdam Colloquium: 425-434.
McNally, L. & H. de Swart. 2013. Infectional and derivational strategies for referring to abstract objects. Paper presented at the Workshop on adjectives and their nominalizations, Stuttgart, February 2013.
Roy, I. 2010. Deadjectival nominalizations and the structure of the adjective. In: A. Alexiadou; M. Rathert (Eds.). The syntax of nominalizations across languages and frameworks. Berlin; Mouton de Gryuter, 1291-58.
Sleeman, P. 1996. Licensing empty nouns in French. Ph.D. Dissertation. HIL.
Villalba, X. 2009. Definite adjective nominalizations in Spanish. In: M.T. Espinal; M. Leonetti; L. McNally (Eds.). Proceedings of the IV Nereus International Workshop Definiteness and DP Structure in Romance Languages.
Villalba, X. & Bartra-Kaufmann, A. 2009. Predicate focus fronting in the Spanish determiner phrase. Lingua 120: 819-849.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2017 Linguística Revista de Estudos Linguísticos da Universidade do Porto

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.