Verbal Participles and the Prenominal Position in English

Abstract

In this paper, I will try to show that empirical data come in support of the analyses which assume that reduced relative clause elements and verbal elements in particular are allowed prenominally in English. First, I will discuss a group of participles, which I will call postmodified participles, namely, participles which are postmodified by adverbs. I will claim that these participles are real verbal participles, something that has been, to my knowledge, unnoticed so far. Basing myself upon data from Bulgarian, where postmodified participles can occur in front of the noun, I will suggest that their impossibility to occur in prenominal position in English is simply due to the right recursion restriction and not to their being verbal. I will provide also some semantic evidence showing that prenominally used participles are not necessarily “stative”. I will provide direct evidence from English that it is possible to isolate real verbal participles in prenominal position also in this language. Finally, I will show that the possibility to use the modifier very much prenominally, unequivocally suggests that reduced relative clauses (IPs) are allowed in this position.