Are determiners heads?

2004 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Hudson
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Common Noun ◽  
Structural Flexibility ◽  
English Only ◽  
The Common

The paper focuses on the relation between the determiner (D) and the common noun (N) in a noun phrase (NP). Four facts show that D depends on N: only N is relevant to whether NP can be used as an adjunct; possessive determiners are similar to clearly dependent possessives e.g. in Dutch and German; N decides whether or not D is obligatory; and in English only one D is possible per N. Three other facts show the converse, that N depends on D: in many languages D sometimes fuses with a preceding preposition (e.g. French de le = du; English for each = per); D decides whether or not N is obligatory; the ellipsis of N is a regular example of dependent ellipsis. Therefore D and N are mutually dependent, a relation which requires the structural flexibility offered by Word Grammar. This does not mean that NP has two heads, but rather that either D or N may be the head.

Apposition détachée ou liée ?

Revue Romane ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-283
Author(s):  
Karin Lindqvist
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Common Noun ◽  
Close Apposition ◽  
The Common ◽  
Newspaper Articles

The article compares the use of the so called close apposition (e.g. le Premier ministre israélien Benjamin Netanyahou) with that of the two types of loose apposition (le Premier ministre israélien, Benjamin Netanyahou and Benjamin Netanyahou, le Premier ministre israélien) in a corpus consisting of French and Swedish newspaper articles. It is suggested that, in many cases, rather than being a result of any particular information structure, the choice of apposition depends to a large extent on the form of the expansion in the common noun. There is a clear difference in the use of the close and loose types between French and Swedish texts. In French, the loose appositions are more common. In Swedish, the close apposition is the most frequent construction. This is due to the fact that, prototypically, the expansion of the French noun phrase is positioned after its head, whereas in Swedish, it is normally positioned before its head.

scholarly journals A tulajdonnevek fordítása – funkcionális, névelméleti megközelítésben I.

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariann Slíz
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Common Noun ◽  
Prototype Theory ◽  
Step Method ◽  
Proper Nouns ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Given ◽  
Communicational Approach

The translation of proper names – a functional, onomastic theoretical approach I. Features of names as factors influencing translation The paper examines the questions surrounding the translation of proper nouns from an onomastic viewpoint blended with the results of translation studies, following a functional-communicational approach. Its goal is to create a model, which contains not only the applicable methods available to translators, but the (pragmatic and communicational) aspects and factors that could affect choosing between these. The novelty of the study is that it takes the meaning (denotation and connotation), the category (e.g. personal name) and sub-category (e.g. family name) of proper nouns into consideration, following the practices of prototype theory. Another innovative approach is the emphasise lain on the influence of composition on the translation of names. According to this, names consisting of several words should not be handled as single units, as earlier studies have consid-ered them, but following a two-step method: first holistically (e.g. the Eng. Flint Cliffs : Hung. Flint-sziklák, a place name), and then morphologically, while defining the categories of the name elements (e.g. Flint is a family name, cliffs is a common noun). This shows that translators are not completing a single operation but a combination of operations (transference in the case of the given name, and translation in the case of the common noun). Translations previously deemed ununderstandably heterogenous can thus be explained by applying this methodology.

scholarly journals »Det gör ont i hela kroppen på mig.»: Prepositionen på som possessivmarkör i nominalfraser

2019 ◽  
Vol NF 28 (2018) ◽  
pp. 22-47
Author(s):  
Olof Eriksson
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Human Body ◽  
The Body ◽  
Internal Organs ◽  
Common View ◽  
Lexical Meaning ◽  
General Terms ◽  
Original Meaning ◽  
The Common

This is a study of grammaticalization within the prepositional system of Swedish. While in general terms av is undoubtedly the most grammatically defined preposition in Swedish, the preposition på has become a primarily grammatical tool in the specific case where it serves semantically to link a part or an organ of the human body to its possessor. It is argued that used in this way the preposition på, although spatial in its lexical meaning, conveys no meaning of location but fills the function of a possessive marker. It is shown that the grammatical status of the preposition på in this construction rests essentially on the following three factors: (1) loss of the original meaning of the preposition; (2) extension of its range of application; (3) its obligatory use even when speaking of internal organs of the body. Further, the article does not support the common view of the two nominal units of the noun phrase as standing in a part–whole relation to one another, the reason being that the “whole” in question is not the possessor of the body but the body itself, expressed in the word kropp (‘body’). Evidence is given in favour of analysing the semantic connexion assigned to the preposition på not as partitive, but as strictly possessive. Finally, it is argued that the use of på in this construction applies not only to relations concerning the human body, but extends into the domain of inanimates.

scholarly journals Syntactic Patterns in Welsh and English Nicknames: A Comparison

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 115-124
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Jędrzejewska-Pyszczak ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
English Language ◽  
Direct Reference ◽  
Common Noun ◽  
Proper Noun ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Descriptive Content ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Common

The paper aims to investigate linguistic constructions that underlie Welsh and English nickname formations and, consequently, provide clues as to the function of nicknaming in both languages. The analysis, backed with examples, reveals that Welsh llysenwau retain their identificatory function and focus on enabling unambiguous nomination of individual community members. This assumption is borne out by the observation that the proper noun is the indispensible element in the structure of a Welsh nickname and the rule as such is harmed in a handful of examples only. In contrast, in English denominations instead of the proper noun it is mostly the common noun that constitutes the core of the formation. What follows is that the linguistic reality of nicknaming patterns might be considered as more context-sensitive in the English language, while the inherent presence of official designations, i.e. the first/second name or the surname, in Welsh designations increases the autonomy of reference. It could be anticipated then that English nicknames would outweigh their Welsh counterparts with regard to descriptive content employed to compensate for the weakening of direct reference as otherwise guaranteed by the inclusion of the name proper. Another issue tackled in the paper is the criterion of word order as the underlying feature of nicknames under discussion. The investigation is aimed at determining whether the two systems typical of Welsh and English, namely VSO and SVO, remain relatively undisturbed or show traces of interaction.

scholarly journals Lexical-semantic characteristics of the common noun háj (‘grove’) and the proper names Háj in relation to archaeological sites. (The archaeological site and motivation of its name from the aspects of history and linguistics)

2021 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 208-228
Author(s):  
Vladimír Mitáš ◽  
Pavol Žigo
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Proper Names ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Common Noun ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Cultural Legacy ◽  
Retrospective View ◽  
Linguistic Unit ◽  
The Common

Abstract The article is an attempt to employ the lexical-semantic reconstruction by Professor Vincent Blanár, whose 100th birthday the authors commemorate, to help us understand the cultural legacy of the past. The core of the text is a retrospective view of the names of areas with occurrence of Pre-Slavic material culture and an attempt to identify the motivating lexical units of the oronyms Háj and their derivatives from the territory of today’s Slovakia by means of interconnected knowledge from the fields of linguistics and archaeology. Proper names such as Háj/Háje occurred as late as in Slavic cultural and linguistic environment; however, material evidence at places with such names suggests presence of an older culture, i. e., settlement by population of a different cultural, social or linguistic provenance. In this study, the lexical-semantic reconstruction of the common noun háj in its original meaning as the motivating linguistic unit for oronyms such as Háj and their derivatives is reflected in the mirror of archaeological research. In connection with the sites named Háj/Háje in the regions of Gemer, Malohont, Novohrad or Hont in the south of Central Slovakia, the authors state that from the aspect of archaeology, they are at least remarkable places of the cultural landscape in which we can expect finds from various stages of prehistory and protohistory. The authors also emphasize that in the studied cases, this is not an absolute rule; it is rather a distinct signal of occurrence of archaeological finds.

Appositive Word Groups as an Instrument for Creating Fake News

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anton Getsov ◽  
◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Common Noun ◽  
Media Discourse ◽  
Fake News ◽  
The Common

The paper analyses the manipulative potential of one insufficiently-explored sentence part in Bulgarian syntax – the appositive, and also the appositive phrases, which are composed of a complement (object or subject complement) and the noun it describes. The paper also stresses the appositive word groups (constructions) that follow the ‘common noun+common noun’ model. The fact that word order in this type of appositive word groups has a role in changing the intention of communication and in creating – deliberately or not – fake news in media discourse is well supported and richly illustrated.

The Great Complement Shift revisited

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Fanego
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Personal Pronoun ◽  
Accusative Case ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Common

This paper examines the history of the ACC-ing gerundive, a subtype of verbal gerund differing formally from both bare gerundives (I enjoyed reading the paper) and POSS-ing gerundives (I was surprised at Jane’s arriving late) in having an overt subject argument either in the common case, if it is a full noun phrase (Two people worrying about each other, with no external diversion, brews a deadly atmosphere) or in the accusative case, if it is a personal pronoun (You can’t prevent me telling the truth). Findings from a corpus-based study show that early instances of ACC-ing gerundives most often functioned as preverbal sentential subjects and served as arguments to causative predicates such as brew, make and oblige. Based on this evidence, it is argued that ACC-ing gerundives have emerged as an intersection of a number of pre-existing constructions, most especially a subtype of absolute participle, now obsolete, that encoded causative (factive) semantics and preceded its superordinate clause. The development of the new gerundive subtype from this participial source, which proceeded as a succession of small discrete steps, can be fruitfully accounted for as a case of constructional change, along the lines proposed in Hilpert (2013) and Traugott & Trousdale (2013).

Dripping with Kindness: The Meaning of rebîbîm

2020 ◽  
Vol 132 (3) ◽  
pp. 449-457
Author(s):  
Raanan Eichler
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
Common Noun ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Semantic Domain ◽  
The Common

AbstractThe common noun רְבִיבִים occurs six times in the Hebrew Bible (Deut 32:2; Jer 3:3; 14:22; Mic 5:6; Pss 65:10[10]; 72:6). Its contexts clearly suggest that it belongs to the semantic domain of rain and dew, and that it denotes something desirable. But further precision has eluded interpreters, and the much-discussed Ugaritic words rbb and rb are of little help in this regard. The apparent Akkadian cognate rabbu A, unmentioned in the standard Biblical Hebrew lexica, is considered here, and it is argued on that basis that the word means “gentle rain” or “drizzle.”

scholarly journals The birth of the adjective class as a problem of translation

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Alfieri
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Common Noun ◽  
Word Class ◽  
Parts Of Speech ◽  
Port Royal ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Middle Ages ◽  
Aristotle's Metaphysics

AbstractThis paper seeks to analyze the translation of grammatical terminology. One of the main differences between the Greek-Latin parts of speech theory and that of traditional later European linguistics (from Port Royal onwards) lies in the existence of the adjective as an independent word class. The paper examines the definitions of the categories of noun, verb and epithet/adjective from Dionysius Thrax through the 17th century, with the aim of showing that the birth of the adjective as an independent word class, along with the stabilization of the labels nomen substantivum and adjectivum with reference to the common noun and the adjective, hides a problem in meta-semiotic translation. Specifically, the issue concerns the translationreinterpretation of Aristotle’s metaphysics in light of Neo-platonic ontology during the Middle Ages, as well as its influence on the reinterpretation-translation of the Greek-Latin parts of speech theory between Late Antiquity and the Renaissance.

scholarly journals Trýta – eitt horvið fjallanavn? / Trýta – a lost mountain name?

2020 ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Eivind Weyhe
Keyword(s):  
Common Noun ◽  
Place Names ◽  
The Common

<p><strong>Úrtak</strong><br />Greinin viðger staðarnøvnini Gilið Trýtu og Skarðið Trýtu í Miðvági og Sandavági. Tey verða her tolkaði sum Gilið í Trýtu og Skarðið í Trýtu har *Trýta er eitt horvið fjallanavn ið inniheldur kvennkynsorðið trýta. Tað orðið er ikki longur livandi felagsheiti (appellativ) í føroyskum, men er kent báði í íslendskum og norskum og man tí helst eisini hava verið til í føroyskum. Orðið man hava merkt ‘trýn, muður ið skjýtur varrarnar fram’ el. tíl., og staðarnavnið hevur tí verið samanburðarnavn ið hevur sipað til skapið á fjallatindi.</p><p><strong>Abstract</strong><br />The article deals with the place-names Gilið Trýtu and Skarðið Trýtu in Miðvágur and Sandavágur on the Faroese island of Vágar. They are explained as developments of Gilið í Trýtu and Skarðið í Trýtu, Trýta being considered a lost mountain name derived from the common noun trýta (f.). That word<br />no longer survives in Faroese, but is known from both Icelandic and Norwegian, and is therefore likely at one time to have been current in the language of the Islands. The sense would probably have been something<br />like ‘snout’ ‘mouth with pouting lips’, and the place-name will thus have been based on comparison with the shape of the mountain top.</p>

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