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Keywords:

Social Sciences, Linguistics, Language & Linguistics, ADJECTIVES, ENGLISH, LAYERS, 1702 Cognitive Sciences, 2004 Linguistics, Languages & Linguistics, 4704 Linguistics

Abstract:

This article gives a diachronic account of adnominal modification from Proto-Indo-European to present-day Dutch. The main conclusion is that through the ages, noun phrases appear to "fold out": they acquire their layered structure for different lexical modifiers over time. The latest stage in this process is the fairly recent development of a specific slot for interpersonal modification of the whole noun phrase. The different stages in the diachronic development are described with the layered and modular representation of functional discourse grammar (FDG). © 2009 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG.