Non-local matching of adjectival modifiers in Mandarin stacked relative clauses

Abstract

Bhatt (2002) argues for a head-raising analysis (HRA) of relative clauses based on the interpretation of certain adjectival modifiers on the head. This paper evaluates Bhatt’s argument in the configurations of stacked relative clauses (SRCs) in Mandarin and argues that the internal interpretation of adjectival modifiers on the head is not a sufficient argument for HRA. We show that adjectival modifiers on the external head of SRCs can receive an internal interpretation when reconstruction is not possible. We propose that the internal reading can instead be derived by non-local matching between the adjectival modifier and its internal representation.