Huddleston's Third Problem For The Rank Scale

Fawcett (2010: 321-2):

The third problem for the 'rank scale' that Huddleston's review brings out is the fact that the completive of a 'prepositional group/phrase' is practically always filled by one or more nominal groups. The problem is that 'phrase' and 'group' are at the same 'rank' on the 'rank scale'. As Huddleston says (1988:154), "for the prepositional phrase always to involve rankshift is contrary to the spirit of rankshift, since rankshift represents a departure from the normal or unmarked state of affairs".

Blogger Comments:

To be clear, if this were really a problem, it would also be a problem for nominal and adverbial groups since the Postmodifier of both groups is almost always realised by a rankshifted unit — "contrary to the spirit of rankshift". Clearly, whether or not rankshift "represents a departure from the normal or unmarked state of affairs" depends on the grammatical environment in which it occurs.