Guglielmo Cinque

A new analysis of adjectives, supported by comparative evidence. In The Syntax of Adjectives, Guglielmo Cinque offers cross-linguistic evidence that adjectives have two sources. Arguing against the standard view, and reconsidering his own earlier analysis, Cinque proposes that adjectives enter the nominal phase either as “adverbial” modifiers to the noun or as predicates of reduced relative clauses. Some of his evidence comes from a systematic comparison between Romance and Germanic languages. These two language families differ with respect to the canonical position taken by adjectives, which is prenominal in Germanic and both pre- and postnominal in Romance. Cinque shows that a simple N(oun)-raising analysis encounters a number of problems, the primary one of which is its inability to express a fundamental generalization governing the interpretation of pre- and postnominal adjectives in the two language families. Cinque argues that N-raising as such should be abandoned in favor of XP-raising—a conclusion also supported by evidence from other language families. After developing this framework for analyzing the syntax of adjectives, Cinque applies it to the syntax of English and Italian adjectives. An appendix offers a brief discussion of other languages that appear to distinguish overtly between the two sources of adjectives.

A Comparative Study

The Syntax of Adjectives

Luigi Rizzi

Mapping Spatial PPs focuses on a particular aspect of the internal syntax of prepositional phrases that has been relatively neglected in previous studies: the fine-grained articulation of their structure. With contributions from top scholars in the field, this volume investigates such components as direction, location, axial part, deictic center, absolute (ambiental) and relative view point, using evidence from Romance, Germanic, and African languages, with references to other language families. Mapping Spatial PPs demonstrates that the internal structure of prepositional phrases is richer than previously recognized.

The Cartography of Syntactic Structures

Mapping Spatial PPs

Anna Cardinaletti

G. Giusti

Papers of the 1987 GLOW-Conference

Constituent Structure

This volume presents the first results of a long-term research project, funded by the Italian government, which aims at mapping out the fine functional structure of sentences, nominal phrases, and other major phrases making up sentences. In particular, it examines the functional structure of DPs (determiner phrases) and IPs (inflection phrases).

The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, Volume 1

Functional Structure in DP and IP

Richard S. Kayne

"Comparison across formal languages is an essential part of formal linguistics. The study of closely-related varieties has proven extremely useful in illuminating relations between cross-linguistic syntactic differences that might otherwise appear unrelated, and has helped to identify the core principles of Universal Grammar. Comparative studies have grown to the point where a reference work is needed to comprehensively explain the state of the field and makes its results more widely known, and this handbook fulfills that need. Its twenty-one commissioned chapters serve two functions: they provide a general and theoretical introduction to comparative syntax, its methodology, and its relation to other domains on linguistic inquiry; and they also provide a systematic selection of the best comparative work being done today on those language groups and families where substantial progress has been achieved. With top-notch editors and contributors from around the world, this volume will be an essential resource for scholars and students in formal linguistics."--

The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Syntax

One of the world's leading syntacticians presents evidence for locating Adverb Phrases in the specifiers of distinct functional projections within a novel and well articulated theory of the clause. In this theory, both adverbs and heads, which encode the functional notions of the clause, are ordered in a rigid sequence. Cinques cutting-edge proposal suggests that the structure of natural language sentences is much richer than previously assumed.

A Cross-Linguistic Perspective

Adverbs and Functional Heads

This volume focuses on the internal structure of prepositional phrases, an area that has so far received little attention from the standpoint of cartography. Despite the wide range of data and considerations presented in these essays, the contributors reach a strikingly convergent conclusion: that phrases composed of spatial prepositions, adverbs, and particles do not have different structures, but merely spell out different parts of the same articulated configuration.

In this book, Cinque takes a generative perspective on typological questions relating to word order and to the syntax of relative clauses. In particular, Cinque looks at: the position of the Head vis à vis the relative clause in relation to the position of the verb vis à vis his object; a general cross-linguistic analysis of correlatives; the need to distinguish a sentence-grammar, from a discourse-grammar, type of non-restrictives (with languages differing as to whether they possess both, one, the other, or neither); a selective type of extraction from relative clauses; and a tentative sketch of a more ample work in progress on a unified analysis of externally headed, internally headed, and headless relative clauses.

Word Order and Relative Clauses

Typological Studies

Professor of Linguistics Guglielmo Cinque

This volume of essays offers a wide-ranging comparative analysis of Italian syntax.

Italian Syntax and Universal Grammar

Giampaolo Salvi

Includes sixteen contributions which are representative of the research carried out in Italy on Italian and, more generally, Romance syntax. The essays in this work are collected to pay homage to Professor Lorenzo Renzi, a scholar who has since the 1960s promoted and shaped the study of Italian syntax in Italy.

Essays Offered to Lorenzo Renzi

Current Studies in Italian Syntax

Collects the articles of Guglielmo Cinque of the University of Venice. This book is divided into two sections, the first on restructuring, a central topic in Romance syntax and with connections to other language groups as well. The second part focuses on the consequences of treating clausal functional heads as members of a universal hierarchy.

Guglielmo Cinque

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