Sections 24.1 and 24.2 have discussed complementation of the adjective, and we have amply demonstrated that at least adjectives and their PP-complement(s) form a larger phrase because they can be moved together into the sentence-initial position; cf. the constituency test. This is demonstrated again in (50b) for the adjective trotsproud. Since the adjective and its PP-complement can also be moved into sentence-initial position in isolation, as in (50c) and (50d), it is clear that the AP can also occur discontinuously.

In the following sections it will be shown that discontinuous APs arise as a result of several movement processes, which arguably also play a role in the verbal domain; cf. Chapters V11 to V13. Section 24.3.1 begins with a discussion of the movement of PP-complements. We show that the discontinuity of the AP can be the result of PP-over-V and PP-preposing (wh-movement, topicalization and focus movement). Section 24.3.2 concludes with a discussion of the movement of nominal complements.