On the linearization of adjectives in Romanian

The paper discusses the linearization of DP-internal Romanian adjectives, along the lines of Stavrou (2001), against the background of phase theory (Chomsky 2005). A system of adjective classification is proposed, taking into account whether they combine with NPs or DPs, whether they are kind- or object-level and whether they combine with nominals by functional application or by th- identification. On this basis, it is shown that adjectives, like nouns, may have a family of related denotations and that the syntax of an adjective, including its position with respect to the head completely follow from the adjective’s denotation. It is claimed that the ordering of adjectives is cyclic, and there are two phasal domains of linearization, the n* domain and the d* domain. The final sections detail the syntactic, interpretative and linearization properties of adjectives in the n*/d* domains.