Abstract
This paper addresses data concerning the interpretation of adjectives such as first, last and only when they modify the head of a relative clause, as discussed by Bhatt (2002). The “low” readings for these modifiers are shown to be much more restricted in their distribution than is predicted by the reconstruction analysis; if these interpretations are derived by allowing the head NP+modifier to be interpreted in the position of the “gap” in the relative clause this results in considerable overgeneration. A generalization is proposed for the distribution of the available readings, and it is argued that the phenomenon of “Neg-Raising” is implicated in their interpretation.
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*This paper arose from collaborative work with Theodora Alexopoulou, whose extensive contribution I gratefully acknowledge. I would also like to record my thanks to Ronnie Cann, Anastasia Giannakidou, Larry Horn, Jim Hurford, and an anonymous reviewer for Natural Language Semantics for their help; they are of course not responsible for the use I have made of their comments and suggestions. This research was partly supported by Leverhulme Trust Research Grant Ref. No. 35028.
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Heycock, C. On the Interaction of Adjectival Modifiers and Relative Clauses. Nat Lang Seman 13, 359–382 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11050-005-4533-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11050-005-4533-x