Relational adjetives as head words of adjectival phrases

Abstract

In this article we deal with the question of relational adjectives being able to function as head adjectives inside adjectival phrases. In the first part we focus on the analysis of examples with two relational adjectives modifying the same noun. We analyze different ways of encoding the string of two adjectives and we propose that this grammatical construction must be analyzed as follows: [[N+A]+A]. In the second part examples with an adverb placed between a noun and a relational adjective are analyzed. We prove that restrictions are different dependant on the nature of the adverb. The combination with degree quantifiers is possible, but it leads to a qualifying interpretation of the adjective. However, the combination with focus quantifiers and many adverbs ending in –mente do not entail this meaning change. In these cases we propose that relational adjectives are entitled to function as adjectival heads inside adjectival phrases.