The Semantics of Chinese Noun Phrases

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuping Li
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
General Area ◽  
Single Issue ◽  
Kind Terms ◽  
Classifier System ◽  
Semantic Notion ◽  
General Classifier ◽  
Bare Nouns ◽  
Syntactic Context ◽  
Object Level

Chinese nominal phrases are typologically distinct from their English counterparts in many aspects. Most strikingly, Chinese is featured with a general classifier system, which not only helps to categorize nouns but also has to do with the issue of quantification. Moreover, it has neither noncontroversial plural markers nor (in)definite markers. Its bare nouns are allowed in various argument positions. As a consequence, Chinese is sometimes characterized as a classifier language, as an argumental language, or as an article-less language. One of the questions arising is whether these apparently different but related properties underscore a single issue: that it is the semantics of nouns that is responsible for all these peculiarities of Mandarin nominal phrases. It has been claimed that Chinese nouns are born as kind terms, from which the object-level readings can be derived, being either existential or definite. Nevertheless, the existence of classifiers in Chinese is claimed to be independent of the kind denotation of its bare nouns. Within the general area of noun semantics, a number of other semantic issues have generated much interest. One is concerned with the availability of the mass/count distinction in Mandarin nominal phrases. Another issue has to do with the semantics of classifiers. Are classifiers required by the noun semantics or the numeral semantics, when occurring in the syntactic context of Numeral/Quantifier-Classifier-Noun? Finally, how is the semantic notion of definiteness understood in article-less languages like Mandarin Chinese? Should its denotation be characterized with uniqueness or familiarity?

Determiners and Bare Nouns

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-194
Author(s):  
Veneeta Dayal ◽  
Yağmur Sağ
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Kind Terms ◽  
Bare Nouns ◽  
Made In

Determiners and bare nouns raise questions about the interface between morphosyntax and semantics. On the syntactic side, the primary issue is whether bare nouns have a null determiner making all noun phrases structurally uniform. On the semantic side, the primary issue involves determining and deriving the range of permissible readings. Of primary significance are the availability of definite and indefinite readings for bare nouns and how such readings relate to the presence or absence of lexical exponents of (in)definiteness in a language. Further refinements include the special scope properties of kind terms versus regular indefinites, differences between singular and plural kind terms, number distinctions within the noun phrase, and the role of incorporation. We present the theoretical and typological advances that have been made in addressing these issues and identify which considerations are purely syntactic or purely semantic in nature and which considerations have implications for the interface.

Bare Numeral Classifier Phrases and Bare Nouns in Mandarin

2020 ◽  
pp. 23-156
Author(s):  
Li Julie Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Number Marking ◽  
Universal Properties ◽  
Bare Nouns ◽  
Numeral Classifier

Chapter 2 examines Mandarin numeral classifier phrases. It begins with a discussion of a list of tendentially universal properties of numeral-noun phrases in number marking languages (NMLs) like English and French and argues for a D-less analysis of them. It then shows that although numeral containing phrases in Mandarin differ a great deal from those in NMLs in the internal nominal domain, their scope behavior, interpretations, and distribution are rather similar to those of NMLs. It argues that the D-less analysis of numeral-noun phrases in NMLs can be extended to Mandarin numeral classifier phrases and further argues for a kind-referring analysis of Mandarin bare nouns. The proposed analysis of numeral classifier phrases correctly predicts the scope behavior of bare nouns in Mandarin and allows us to account for its numeral-less classifier phrases. This chapter concludes that it is not necessary to stipulate an empty D in Mandarin

scholarly journals ZCS: A Zeroth Level Classifier System

1994 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stewart W. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Algorithm ◽  
Action Selection ◽  
Q Learning ◽  
Classifier System ◽  
General Classifier ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Temporary Memory

A basic classifier system, ZCS, is presented that keeps much of Holland's original framework but simplifies it to increase understandability and performance. ZCS's relation to Q-learning is brought out, and their performances compared in environments of two difficulty levels. Extensions to ZCS are proposed for temporary memory, better action selection, more efficient use of the genetic algorithm, and more general classifier representation.

Producing written noun phrases in French

2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Severine Maggio ◽  
Florence Chenu ◽  
Guillemette Bes de Berc ◽  
Blandine Pesci ◽  
Bernard Lété ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parallel Processing ◽  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Frequency Effect ◽  
Word Frequency Effect ◽  
Written Production ◽  
Bare Nouns ◽  
Written Word ◽  
Consistency Effects

This research compares the time-course of the written production of bare nouns to that of noun phrases. French adults named pictures of objects either using or not using determiners. Resulting pauses and writing rates were analyzed in relation to word-orthographic frequency, syllabic length, and phoneme-to-grapheme consistency at the end of words. More specifically, we showed that the noun production process begins as soon the determiner production is initiated (word frequency effect on latencies, length and consistency effects on determiner writing rate) and continued during the course of the noun production. When the determiner was absent, the management of writing was different: the writer slowed the production speed, probably in order to realize the lexeme processing that s/he could not do in the absence of the determiner production time. These results provided further evidence that some form of parallel processing occurs in written word production and led us to sketch the time-course of the noun spelling in written denomination of a noun phrase.

scholarly journals Interpreting Bare Nouns: Type-Shifting vs. Silent Heads

2011 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Izumi
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
The Other ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Null Arguments ◽  
Bare Nouns ◽  
Type Shifting

Bare noun phrases in article-less languages such as Japanese have a variety of interpretations. There are two competing approaches to the semantics of bare noun phrases: one is to appeal to type-shifting to derive various interpretations, and the other is to introduce more structure, i.e., silent determiners. I present an argument against the latter silent-head approach based on the behaviors of phonologically null arguments in Japanese. The silent-head approach has difficulties in explaining the semantics of null arguments, whatever syntactic analysis of null arguments turns out to be correct. The type-shifting approach to bare noun phrases, by contrast, easily accounts for the semantics of null arguments.

Morphological structure governs the process of accessing grammatical gender in the course of production

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maya Dank ◽  
Avital Deutsch
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Access ◽  
Congruency Effect ◽  
Morphological Structure ◽  
Naming Latency ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Gender Information ◽  
Bare Nouns ◽  
Organizational Principles ◽  
Gender Congruency Effect ◽  
Syntactic Context

The present study investigated the process of accessing gender information when producing inanimate nouns in Hebrew. The Picture Word Interference paradigm was used to manipulate gender congruency between target pictures and spoken distractors. Naming latency and accuracy were measured. The gender congruency effect has been tested in various Indo-European languages, with mixed results. It seems to depend on both language-specific attributes and the syntactic context of the utterance. Speakers’ insensitivity to gender congruency was observed at 3 SOAs (Experiment 1a–1c). Neither the production of bare nouns (Experiments 1 & 3) nor gender-marked NPs (Experiment 2) elicited the effect. Nevertheless, the same procedure and targets revealed a semantic effect. The present findings in Hebrew deviate from previous results obtained with Indo-European languages. The results are discussed in connection with Hebrew’s nonconcatenative morphological features and the way linguistic characteristics govern the organizational principles of the mental lexicon and lexical access.

scholarly journals Reasoning about definiteness in a language without articles

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
James N. Collins
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Compositional Structures ◽  
Syntactic Context

Most theories of implicature make reference to a notion of alternatives. Interlocutors reason about what the speaker could have said. In this paper, I investigate the structure of these alternatives. In particular, I ask how these alternative utterances are constrained by the interlocutors' grammar. I argue that in order to derive certain implicatures, alternative utterances must be analyzed like actual utterances, as fully compositional structures appropriately generated by the grammar. The data supporting this position come from implicatures generated by indefinite bare noun phrases in Tagalog. I show that Tagalog indefinites give rise to non-uniqueness implicatures via competition with definites, as in English. However, unlike English, definite and indefinite interpretations of Tagalog NPs are not signalled by dedicated articles, but by verbal affixes. Therefore, in order to generate the observed implicatures, pragmatic competition must take into consideration the NP's broader syntactic context. Supporting the view that implicature calculation is sensitive to the morphosyntactic structure of alternative utterances, I show that in cases where the alternative is not grammatically well-formed, the implicature does not arise. These data provide evidence that only grammatically well-formed structures are able to enter into pragmatic competition.

scholarly journals Bare and Not-So-Bare Nouns and the Structure of NP

1999 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 509-542 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Lai-Shen Cheng ◽  
Rint Sybesma
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Bare Nouns

This article examines the distribution and interpretational variability of bare nouns and [classifier+noun] phrases in Cantonese and Mandarin. We argue that bare nouns are never bare in structure and that [classifier+noun] phrases may have more structure than just Classifier Phrase. We show that the lack of articles and number morphology in Cantonese/Mandarin leads to many interesting differences between Chinese-type languages and English-/Italian-type languages.

scholarly journals The Swahili Noun Phrase in its Sentential Aspect

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-43
Author(s):  
Amani Lusekelo
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Determiner Phrases ◽  
Bare Nouns ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Proximity Principle ◽  
Minimalist Syntax

This paper articulates the syntactic properties of nouns in Swahili in relation to functional projections which are associated with both concord in determiner phrases and agreement in inflectional phrases. With regards to realisation of syntactic properties in Bantu noun phrases, three claims had been suggested based on different approaches, vis-à-vis the use of pre-prefix to denote discourse-based information about (in)definiteness, indication of phi-features in minimalist syntax by using the nominal prefix, and determination by demonstratives and possessives as supported by head proximity principle. Findings from Swahili texts point towards the fact that bare nouns receive either definite interpretation or indefinite reading depending on the context of communication. Therefore, the definite–indefinite distinction is not provided by physical linguistic materials, but by discourse-based contexts. Even when a demonstrative and/or possessive is used, it is the context of communication which situates the specific referent rather than the lexical entities. Findings indicate that the choice between demonstratives and possessives in determinations of Swahili NPs is also context bound.

scholarly journals An Investigation of the Role of Working Memory Capacity and Naming Speed in Phonological Advance Planning in Language Production

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jana Klaus ◽  
Herbert Schriefers
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Naming Speed ◽  
Large Variability ◽  
Bare Nouns ◽  
Advance Planning

Producing multi-word utterances is a complex, yet relatively effortless process. Research with the picture-word interference paradigm has shown that speakers can plan all elements of such utterances up to the phonological level before initiating speech, yet magnitude and polarity differ between but also within studies. We investigated possible sources for variability in the phonological advance planning scope. In two experiments, participants produced bare nouns (“monkey”) and complex noun phrases (“the small red monkey”) while ignoring distractor words phonologically (un)related to the noun. For low- and high-working memory capacity speakers as well as fast and slow speakers, we found phonological facilitation effects for the bare noun, but no distractor effects for the complex noun phrases. However, looking at individual distractor effects for utterance-final elements revealed a large variability between speakers. We conclude that phonological advance planning cannot be summarised as an overall effect, but should take into account inter- and intraindividual variability.

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