Attributive constructions, scrambling in the AP, and referential types

This paper argues for four main points that characterize attributive constructions in German: German attributive constructions, i.e. APs, participial constructions and relative clauses, share a common morphosyntactic structure. The traditional (mostly semantic) term ‘attribute’ can thus be given a common morphosyntactic definition. Secondly, the syntactic structure of attributive structures is quintessentially sentential, i.e. it comprises complex structures which constitute binding domains, shows phase properties, etc. Thirdly, given that attributive structures parallel other sentential structures, many operations well-known from other sentence types in German are replicated in the attributive domain as well, most notably information structure-related scrambling. Last, but not least, the analysis of attributive structures supports the assumption that phasal structures cross-classify in a system of so-called referential types (RT): RTs define types of structures which, as far as morphosyntactic appearances go, can differ dramatically both within a single language and across different languages. Yet RTs can serve as a valid tertium comparationis that allows us to make interesting comparisons and connections both within individual languages and cross-linguistically.