ABSTRACT
What do we mean when we say that something modifies something else? We can provide some answers by looking at an instance of modification:
1. five red balls.
The expression in (1) encodes a domain, the item that is modified (balls), which is delimited by two properties: numerical quantification (five) and color (red). This illustration underscores two basic questions that drive our subsequent inquiry into modification:
The goal of this chapter is to provide an inventory of properties and functions at the service of the grammars of all languages. These ideas, fundamental as they are, presuppose an even more basic inquiry. What are property concepts to begin with? Three influential answers to this question have appeared in the literature.
