Syntax I

I’ve been asked if I can clarify just a bit the “hint” of the previous post. So, as indicated, aus Frankreich isn’t a complement of the noun Frau, but is rather an adjunct—pretty much the only thing that would be a complement of a noun would be a von ‘of’ PP. So, for the same reasons that you can say A can of beer on the table but not *A can on the table of beer, you’d expect to be able to say die noun von X auf Y, but not *die noun auf Y von X.

When thinking about adjuncts to NPs, adjectives are generally adjoined on the left, as in:

      NP
     /  \
  AdjP   NP
 tasty   bagel

…and PPs are generally adjoined on the right…

      NP
     /  \
   NP    PP
 bagel  /  \
       P    DP
    from   /  \
          D    NP
      ∅proper  Montréal

So, if you think about how you might do tasty bagel from Montréal, it’ll be quite parallel to the German example.

It also might be useful to consider that it might either be a bagel from Montréal that is tasty, or a tasty bagel that is from Montréal. They’re subtly different—either you’re considering bagels from Montréal and saying this is a tasty one, or you’re considering tasty bagels and saying that this one is from Montréal.

Here ends the hint clarification, for the moment.