The Positions of Adjectives in English

This book explores the uses of adjectives in different constructions, and of the problems that arise in their analysis, both in terms of syntactic theory and philosophy of grammar. Professor Matthews also examines a variety of other issues relating to individual adjective positions, including the basic structure of noun phrases and the justification for binary constituents; the status of the copular and its uses in the progressive; the indeterminacy of what were once described as raised constructions; and the function of postmodifying adjectives and adjective phrases in relation to others. The book will be of interest to graduate students and researchers in theoretical and descriptive linguistics, especially those focusing on the history of the English language and lexicology.

P. H. Matthews is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. He has formerly held positions at Bangor University and the University of Reading, and has been an Honorary Member of the Linguistic Society of America since 1994. His many books include The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics (3rd edn; OUP 2014), Syntactic Relations: A Critical Survey (CUP 2007), Linguistics: A Very Short Introduction (OUP 2003), and A Short History of Structural Linguistics (CUP 2001).