The postnominal and adjective construction in Old English I am indebted to Jennifer R. Austin, David Denison, and two anonymous English Language and Linguistics reviewers for detailed and helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.

Abstract

It is argued in this article that the postnominal ‘and adjective’ construction in Old English (e.g. Sodfßstne man & unscyldigne (LAW2,40.45) ‘righteous person and guiltless’ and pßas fullan ofnes & pßas peostran (BEDE,13.430.4) ‘that full furnace and that dark’) should be not analyzed as an instance of ambilateral adjective placement, but as an instance of DP coordination with an empty nominal element, pro, in the second conjunct. As a consequence, the adjective contained in the postnominal ‘and adjective’ construction is analyzed as an attributive adjective in prenominal, i.e. pre-pro position.