Original scientific paper

The Possessive and Adjective Phrases in Croatian

Ranko Matasović ; Filozofski fakultet, Zagreb

Abstract

It is argued that the syntactic behaviour of the Croatian possessive NPs can be accounted
for by Role and Reference Grammar (RRG). The prohibition against possessive NPs with
more than one possessive adjective is a consequence of a basic claim of RRG, namely, that
adjectives are operators and are not represented in the constituent projection. Therefore,
adjectives, including the Croatian possessive adjectives, cannot have a branching structure,
so possessive adjectives are replaced by postnominal possessive genitives whenever a possessed
noun is modified by more than one possessor. Adjectives taking complements (e. g. full
of beer) are also invariably postnominal in Croatian and English, as well as in other right-
branching languages. Such adjective phrases should be analyzed as a kind of reduced relative
phrase.

Keywords

adjective forms; possessive forms; role and reference grammar; Croatian

Hrčak ID:

22628

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/22628

Publication date:

30.11.2000.

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