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In this paper I examine certain gradable adjectives in Serbian, whose suppletive comparative forms display unexpected semantic properties. In particular, while these adjectives are ambiguous between intersective and non-intersective readings in the positive form, their suppletive comparative and superlative forms are limited to the non-intersective interpretation. These facts show, I argue, that in a theory like Distributed Morphology either adjectival roots or category-assigning heads they combine with come in semantic subtypes (i.e. are specified for certain semantic properties; Harley 2005, Anagnostopoulou and Samioti 2014). I show how the analysis I propose explains semantic properties of change-of-state verbs derived from these adjectives and why these adjectives are restricted to the intersective interpretation when their positive form takes the long-form (definite) inflection. I also provide an illustration of how Arregi and Nevins's (2014) analysis of the so-called "disuppletive" roots, such worse/badder, can deal with the facts presented in this paper. Finally, I discuss implications of these facts in the context of Bobaljik's (2012) approach to suppletive comparative morphology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article is positioned at the interface between onomastics and word formation. It examines the German adjective-forming suffix-isch, which combines with proper names (Lutherisch 'Lutheran') as well as with common nouns (höllisch 'hellish'). Making use of diachronic corpora of German, the development of -isch is studied with respect to different appellative and onymic base classes. Based on graphematic evidence as well as on their referential properties, these base classes are arranged on a scale of onymicity. The most name-like categories are examined more closely. First, utilizing the distinction qualifying adjectives vs. descriptive adjectives, adjectival derivatives from personal names in German are contrasted with those in English. Furthermore, for family name as well as town name bases, diachronic variation in productivity shifts of -ischderivatives and competing derivational patterns is investigated. Based on the results, it can be hypothesized that the more name-like the words are, the more instability is to be expected in the diachronic derivational patterns, also observable in a high degree of cross-linguistic variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many languages a set of adjectives are characterized by their 'past/passive' participial morphology. Lexicalist and syntactic approaches to word formation converge on the claim that such adjectives can be derived from verbal inputs with no external argument but never from verbal inputs with an external argument. That is, there are 'adjectival passives' but no 'adjectival antipassives' marked with the same morphology. I argue that a sub-class of adjectives marked with the 'past/passive' participial morpheme -do in Spanish, labeled participios activos in descriptive grammars, should be treated as adjectival antipassives in precisely this sense. I propose that Spanish has an Asp head that (i) is spelled out with 'past/passive' participial morphology and (ii) selects an unergative verbal input creating a state/property whose argument corresponds to the external argument of that verbal source. If on the right track, the proposal supports the existence of a typology of adjectivizing heads that are spelled out uniformly with 'past/passive' participial morphology but must be distinguished in terms of selectional and semantic properties (Bruening 2014, Word formation is syntactic: Adjectival passives in English. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 32. 363-422; Embick 2004, On the structure of resultative participles in English. Linguistic Inquiry 35. 355-392). It differs from previous approaches in claiming that such a typology must include root-derived adjectives, as well as 'active (=unergative)' and 'passive' deverbal adjectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expletives have been argued to be merged in Spec, TP, Spec, vP, or within DP. This paper argues that this line of thought does not apply to the existential expletive fii of Jordanian Arabic. The arguments presented in this paper rest on the assumption that merge of fii in any of those proposed merge sites cannot be empirically substantiated since it does not account for data from Jordanian Arabic. It is argued instead that, in an existential construction, fii heads its own projection, an expletive phrase, with the associate projected as complement of the expletive. Further, the expletive phrase is argued to merge in the specifier of a predicate phrase, whose head is a null adjectival predicate. Therefore, the view of fii as a syntactic dummy is reconsidered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In multiple property models of lexical categories, the assignment of a word to a lexical category is determined by a set of properties associated with that category. Specifically, if a word displays a sufficient number of properties associated with a given category, it will be assigned to that category. The current article critically evaluates multiple property models of lexical categories. In particular, it focuses on a multiple property model recently developed by Aarts (Syntactic gradience: The nature of grammatical indeterminacy, Oxford University Press, 2007b) and a variety of other such models. It is argued that multiple property models encounter problems in four key areas. Firstly, they struggle to determine an appropriate set of lexical categories and to provide coherent accounts of the nature and function of such categories. Secondly, they encounter difficulties in determining the properties that define categories and in determining features of properties such as whether they should be weighted or not. Thirdly, a variety of problems arise when multiple property models combine words, properties and categories together. Finally, multiple property models fail to account for crosslinguistic data. It is concluded that multiple property models do not provide viable accounts of lexical categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the mechanism of predicate formation at work in the Participial Relative in Modern Hebrew and Standard Arabic, a mixed verbo-adjectival construction. External distribution and function of the verbal construction as that of adjectival predicate; Means of achieving predicate formation in participial relatives.