Syntactic Derivation Of Adjective Phrases In Dp

This thesis aims to study the syntactic derivation of adjective phrases in DP by using the latest phase theory, focusing on adjective classification and its syntactic status as well as adjective distribution. Based on G Boleda, T Badia, and SS im Walde's (Boleda, Badia and Walde, 2005) efforts on multi-level classification of adjectives, it is claimed in this thesis that adjectives can be identified from semantic, morphological and syntactic level; furthermore, there is a very close relationship among adjectives in those three different linguistic levels. In this thesis, two phases are proposed in DP, and that is DP phase and nP phase. This proposal is under the assumption of Svenonius'(2003) study that is based on the analogical analysis of clauses and nominal phases. Svenonius (2003) deems that QP corresponds to CP, and nP to vP; but it is argued in this thesis that it is DP that is similar to CP, whereas nP to vP.When it comes to the syntactic status of adjectives, it never achieves any consensus. Basically, there are four classic hypotheses: adjectives-as-heads, adjectives-as-adjuncts, adjectives-as-specifiers, and adjectives-as-reduced relative clauses. This thesis first reviews these four approaches and points out both the pros and cons respectively, then proposes that all universal adjectives are postnominally base-generated, and they are derived from reduced relative clauses. Actually, this point is proposed to be the universal adjective feature F. Located on the feature F, there is a parameter P which varies from one language from another, and decides the final adjective position within the DPs. To approve the proposal mentioned, various examples concerning the syntactic derivation of adjective phrases from cross-linguistic data (English, Chinese, Indonesian, Thai, French and Portuguese) have been collected in this thesis.