222 Bożena Cetnarowska
why the linearization pattern CA+N is employed by speakers of Polish, instead of the
canonical N+CA order.^1
In previous work (Cetnarowska, Pysz & Trugman 2011a; Cetnarowska, Pysz &
Trugman 2011b), we advocated an approach towards adjectival modification in Polish,
based on the representational theory proposed by Bouchard (1998, 2002 , 2009 ). We pro-
vided some arguments against the derivational analysis of Polish classifying adjectives,
which was outlined in Rutkowski and Progovac (2005) and elaborated in Rutkowski
(2007, 2009 , 2012 ). Among others, we showed that classifying adjectives frequently
occur in the pre-head position when there is another adjectival modifier placed in the
post-head position, as in kolorowa drukarka laserowa (lit. colour.adj printer laser.adj)
‘a colour laser printer’. Moreover, we investigated the mutual distribution of classifying
adjectives and adnominal genitives in Polish, since both types of modifiers typically
occur in the post-nominal position and allow for the type reading. This is shown by the
phrases mundur strażacki (lit. uniform fireman.adj) and mundur strażaka (lit. uniform
fireman.gen), both of which can be paraphrased as ‘a firefighter’s uniform’.
The present paper extends the analysis proposed by Cetnarowska, Pysz &
Trugman (2011a,b) to a further type of data, illustrating combinations of nouns and
classifying adjectives in Polish. It focuses on pre-head classifying adjectives attested
in phrases in which the head noun is not accompanied by any post-head modifier.
The pre-nominal position of the classifying adjective cannot be treated then as result-
ing from the presence of some other element blocking the “default” post-head slot. I
argue that the speaker’s decision to place the classifying adjective before or after the
head noun leads to subtle differences in the interpretation of resulting noun phrases.
In this way, I provide further support for the neo-Saussurean framework outlined in
Bouchard (2002, 2009 ).
The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 illustrates the distinction between
classifying and qualifying adjectives in Polish, and shows how the difference between
those two types of modifiers is captured in the theoretical framework advocated in
Rutkowski & Progovac (2005) and Rutkowski (2007, 2009 , 2012 ). Section 3 gives a
short outline of the representational approach to adjectival modification, as postulated
in Bouchard (2002) on the basis of data from French and English. The next section
demonstrates how Bouchard’s theory is applied to the description of Polish adjectives
in Cetnarowska, Pysz & Trugman (2011a,b). Sections 5 and 6 focus on the seman-- As pointed out by Reviewer 1, Dryer (2005, 2011 ) provides useful cross-linguistic discus-
sion of the order of adjectives and nouns in a noun phrase. In a sample of 1366 languages
investigated in Dryer (2011), 373 languages require the adjective to precede the noun (as the
most common order), while in 878 languages the adjective is expected to follow the noun.
Furthermore, Dryer (2011) lists 110 languages in which neither the AdjN nor the NAdj order
is the dominant one. Polish belongs to the group of languages in which the pre-nominal posi-
tion of adjectives is the more common one (except for the placement of classifying adjectives).