形容词短语结构中的功能投射

The functional projections in the adjective phrase

本文分析形容词短语结构中的功能投射,提出并论证以下观点:1)英语和汉语程度词的分布特征和范畴选择事实给以往将其统一分析为功能词"程度"带来挑战;2)形容词带有不可解读的形式特征[比较],该特征迫使带有匹配特征的"程度"功能词与形容词短语合并,投射出程度短语,进行特征核查和删除;3)"程度""度量""等级性"均为形容词短语中的功能核心词,投射出一个丰富的形容词短语结构:[DegPDeg[MsrPMsr[GrdPGrd[APA]]]]。本文的分析解释了形容词短语内部结构的特点,在形容词与名词之间建立了跨范畴短语结构的平行性,为进一步探索跨语言和跨范畴短语结构的特点提供了部分经验证据。

This paper is concerned with the functional projections in the adjective phrase(AP).Focusing on degree words in English and Chinese,we first point out the inadequacies of the previous analyses of the functional head Deg(ree)in AP by drawing evidence from the syntactic distribution and c-selection of degree words and the semantic analysis of adjectives.Then we argue that adjectives bear a formal feature of[CPR](for"comparative"),which is uninterpretable and must be checked and deleted,thus motiving the c-commanding Deg P projection with Deg having the matching feature.We finally argue for a fully articulated structure of functional projections of adjectives:[DegP Deg[MsrP Msr[GrdP Grd[AP A]]]],with Deg,Msr(for"measure")and Grd(for"gradability")responsible for degree,measure and gradability respectively.Consequently,under this analysis,the phrasal properties of adjectives are captured and a cross-categorial parallelism of the functional projec-tions in adjectives and nouns is achieved,lending more empirical evidence for further explorations of cross-linguistic and cross-categorial phrase structures.