exceptional adjectives (fwd)

[Edith A Moravcsik]

Bingfu Lu has asked me to forward the following message to FUNKNET.
Edith

****************************************************************************


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 16:11:54 -0700
From: Bingfu Lu <bingfu at rcf-fs.usc.edu>
To: edith at CSD.UWM.EDU
Cc: binfu at usc.edu
Subject: exceptional adjectives

        Thanks for Moravcsik's very instructive summary.

        I would like to add some related data to the phenomenon.
        In Chinese, we have almost the same paradigm:

        (1)     Zheme congming yi-ge haizi!
                So/this smart one-CL boy!
                "So/this smart a boy!"

        (2)     Hao/duo congming yi-ge haizi!
                How smart one-CL boy!
                "How smart a boy!"

Chinese does not have the indefinite article, thus, yi-ge (one-classifier)
serves the
function of the indefinite article in most cases.

However, "tai Adj" (too Adj) cannot precede 'yi-ge'.(this really puzzles
me)

        (3)     *Tai congming yi-ge haizi!
                too smart yi-ge haizi
                "Too big an apple!"

Anyway, the above near-parallel paradigm suggests that the English
'exceptional'

adjectival phrases are not totally exceptional.  There must be some
universals
behind.

My previous guess that the indefinite article patterns with numerals is
not
precise, in the sense that the indefinite article cannot be replaced by
numerals.
The crucial fact here is that the indefinite article patterns with neither
numeral nor
the definite article/determiners (this, that).   Thus, "pre-article position"
 seems to
be a misleading term, since these adjectives cannot precede the definite
article.

Moravcsik points out:
My concern with Lu's explanation is that I do not see clearly in what
way the modifiers "this/too/so Adj"
etc. contribute to making the noun phrase more referential or more
definite. The fact that "this/so/too... Adj" occurs only with indefinite
nouns militates against this idea. A phrase like "this student" is
referential and definite; but "this bright a student" is neither definite
nor necessarily referential.

Based on Moravcsic's observation, I would like revise my
previous assumption that 'modifiers contributing more referentiality
to their mother NP tend to precede' as 'modifiers that contribute
more referentiality  to their mother NP or that themselves are more
referential

tend to precede'.
        In fact, my previous suggestion is derived from the assumption that
more referential units tend to precede.  I take it as the unmarked/default
correlation
between referential units and the units that contribute referentiality.

        My new assumption covers both the derived assumption and
the source universal.

        I now can answer Moravcsik's concern.
'This' in 'this bright a student' precedes because it is itself more
referential,
 as
Moravcsik's term 'deictic adjective' suggests.

Adjectives that can occure before the indefinite article includes:

too Adj, this Adj, such, how, what,

That 'such' and 'this Adj.' are more identifiable/deictic is clear.
'Too Adj' is deictic in the sense that it implies the meaning of 'outstaning'

This is true of 'how' and 'what', which are not used intorrogatively, but
exclamational, which implies that the related NP is likely at least a
specific
entity.