On the syntactic position and the semantics of modificative adjectives in Truku

What is it about?

What is the syntactic position of modificative adjectives in Truku (a Formosan Austronesiant language) and how their position is related to their semantics.

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Why is it important?

The findings echo a generalization that was made for Romance languages about the link between position and meaning for modificative adjectives. Moreover, Truku is the only language in its family to allow two distinct positions for modificative adjectives. The article argues about the possibility that such a change is at least partially induced by language contact with Chinese.