On pre-nominal classifying adjectives in Polish 227
(11) a. mundur strażacki galowy
uniform fireman.adj parade.adj
‘a parade uniform for firemen’
b. prasa codzienna ogólnopolska
press everyday.adj all-Polish
‘national daily press’
c. literatura współczesna polska
literature contemporary Polish
‘Polish contemporary literature’
If there are two adjectives in the post-head position in a noun phrase, Rutkowski
(2007, 2009 , 2012 ) treats only the one closest to the head as a classifying adjective.
The rightmost adjective is regarded by him as a qualifying one and is assumed to be
merged in a reduced relative clause.
(12) a. drzwi przeciwpożarowe stalowe
door antifire.adj steel.adj
‘steel fire doors’
b. drukarka laserowa kolorowa
printer laser.adj colour.adj
‘a colour laser printer’
Let us point out, however, that the rightmost adjective in (11) and (12) denotes a subcat-
egory of a given category specified by the first post-head classifying adjective. It cannot be
derived in a reduced relative clause as it is generally infelicitous in the predicative position
(for further examples, see Cetnarowska, Pysz & Trugman 2011a, b, from now on CPT).^4
(13) a. mundur strażacki, który jest galowy
uniform fireman.adj which is parade.adj
‘fireman’s uniform which is for parades’
b. prasa codzienna, która jest ogólnopolska
press daily which is all-Polish
‘daily press which is nationwide (i.e. all-Polish)’
c. *literatura współczesna, która jest polska
literature contemporary which is Polish
‘contemporary literature which is Polish’
- The phrases given in (13) can be saved in contrastive contexts, e.g. ??Prasa codzienna,
która jest ogólnopolska, prezentuje wyższy poziom niż prasa codzienna, która jest lokalna. ‘Daily
press which is nationwide represents a higher level (i.e. is more sophisticated) than daily press
which is regional.’ (see CPT 2011a).