Wayward categorial shift: so odd an article

• Published in: Language sciences (Oxford) Vol. 73; pp. 146 - 164
• Main Author: Van de Velde, Freek
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Ltd 01.05.2019; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Adjectives; Big mess construction; Categorial shift; Degrammaticalization; Diachronic linguistics; English language; Exaptation; Inflection (Morphology); Morphology; Noun phrases; Reference (Semantic); Syntactic structures; Word order; art; Categorial shift; Exaptation; Degrammaticalization; Big mess construction; dem; gen; neg; sg; indf; dat; infl; pl

This article presents a diachronic study of the so-called ‘Big Mess Construction’, whereby an adverb of degree and an adjective precede an article, as in English so good a bargain. Due to the challenges this construction poses to noun phrase syntax, it has been the subject of a number of scholarly s...