The Order of Stage-level and Individual-level Relatives and Superiority Effects

This paper argues that the two-layer modification of noun phrases as proposed in Larson & Takahashi (2004), Del Gobbo (2005), and Hsieh (2005) cannot account for the distribution of the order of stage-level and individual-level relatives in Mandarin. Alternatively, it is suggested that I-level relatives must occur closer to the head nouns than S-level relatives because I-level modifiers are arguments of “augmented nouns”, whereas S-level modifiers are true adjuncts. It is always the case that adjuncts are base-generated outside arguments. It is also shown that relative clauses in Mandarin may be attracted to the specifier position of DP. When they move, however, they have to obey syntactic economy conditions such as Shortest. Consequently, the hierarchical positions of an S-level and I-level relative after the movement must preserve their original base-generated hierarchical order before movement.