And:
>What is the syntactic structure of these bracketed phrases?
>
> [What colour hair] does he have?
> [Which colour smarties] do you prefer?
> [What colour car] has she bought?
>
>Going by the meaning one would think [[What [colour]] hair], given other
>WG analyses, but then how come no other determiner is possible initially?
>E.g. "*how many which colour smarties do you want" (cf. "how many
>smarties of which colour do you want"), "*a what colour car".
## I think these are like "what kind of car", but without the "of". I think
that "of" is possible:
what colour of hair does he have?
which colour of smarties do you prefer?
what colour of car has she bought?
With "of" the syntax is straightforward and all the facts you note are as
expected. The optionality of "of" is as with numbers: "dozens of people"
but "a dozen people". I assume that the dependencies stay the same without
"of".
Richard (= Dick) Hudson
Phonetics and Linguistics, University College London,
Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT.
+44(0)171 419 3152; fax +44(0)171 383 4108;
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/home.htm
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