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.

scholarly journals Re-examining the relationship between the subject agreement morpheme and (in)definiteness in Northern Sotho

Literator ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mampaka L. Mojapelo
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Primary Role ◽  
Northern Sotho ◽  
Class 1 ◽  
Subject Noun ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Subject Agreement

The grammatical position of the subject noun phrase in Northern Sotho is to the left of the predicate. The subject agreement morpheme is a compulsory link between the subject noun phrase and the predicate. Scholars have examined the role of this morpheme from various perspectives. It is also extensively documented that the morpheme has dual functions. Its primary function is to mark agreement between the subject and the predicate. Its secondary function is pronominal, whereby it is co-referenced to some antecedent. This article reexamined the primary role of the subject agreement morpheme in Northern Sotho in relation to the interpretation of a subject noun phrase as definite or indefinite. This was accomplished by (1) revisiting existing works that are directly or indirectly linked to (in)definiteness and subject agreement, (2) analysing texts that may facilitate discussion on the issue, and (3) relating the findings from previous works to current analyses. The first hypothesis in this article was that when some class 9 subject noun phrases, denoting persons, agree with the verb stem by a class 1 agreement morpheme, the noun phrases are interpreted as definite. The second hypothesis was that although the subject position is considered predominantly topical and definite it may not categorically exclude indefinite noun phrases. Therefore some indefinite noun phrases may also agree with predicates by means of this morpheme.

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.

The Correlation between Definite Noun Phrases and Verb Forms in Qur'anic Narrative Texts

2004 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 56-68
Author(s):  
Haruko Sakaedani
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Previous Article ◽  
Narrative Texts ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
Made In

In a previous article I have examined shifts of noun phrase forms in Qur'anic narrative texts and found that this kind of shift is strictly associated with the construction of texts and development of stories. It was also found that other categories such as voice, aspect and tense are connected with the shifts of these noun phrase forms. In the present paper I first confirm the argument made in my previous paper: that forms of noun phrases are markers of point of view in narratives. Next, the correlations between these noun phrase forms and various verb forms are inquired into, and the effect of using different noun phrase forms and verb forms in the texts is discussed. The argument is restricted to narratives because these realise textual coherence more than the early fragmentary revelations, and because the points of view in these narratives can be examined through the various persons coming into the stories. In addition, this study focuses on definite noun phrases rather than indefinite ones as, other than when they are first introduced into the texts, the referents in these stories are referred to with definite noun phrases, or more strictly speaking, a number of prophets and other famous persons are frequently introduced with definite noun phrases.

Amharic Relatives and Possessives: Definiteness, Agreement, and the Linker

2007 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 302-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel den Dikken
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Head Movement ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Noun Phrases

Ouhalla's (2004) valuable discussion of relativized and possessed noun phrases in Amharic leaves a number of questions open. Foremost among these is the placement of the linker element yä-. Starting from an analysis of relative clauses and possessors as predicates of their “heads,” this article develops a syntax of complex noun phrases in Amharic that explains the raison d'être and placement of yä-, and also accommodates facts about definiteness marking and agreement in the Amharic complex noun phrase that have hitherto largely escaped attention or analysis. The analysis emphasizes the role of Predicate Inversion and head movement in syntax, and it confirms and extends the minimalist Agree- and phase-based approach to syntactic relationships.

The grammar of ‘content’ and ‘container’

1976 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Schwartz-Norman
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
The State ◽  
Direct Object ◽  
Semantic Interpretation ◽  
Semantic Roles ◽  
Grammatical Relations ◽  
Grammatical Relation ◽  
Made In ◽  
Syntactic Frames

I. In this paper I will examine the systematic alternation in grammatical relations (or functions) of noun phrases in the semantic rôles that I will refer to as ‘content’ and ‘container’ for that class of English verbs which appear in the syntactic frames given in (I):(I)(a)…V NP1 IN/ON(TO) NP2…load the hay on the waggon(b)…V NP2 WITH NP1…load the waggon with the hay.This class of verbs, exemplified by load, spread and spray is particularly interesting because of the claim made in Anderson (1971) that the noun phrase which stands in the grammatical relation of direct object is semantically interpreted as being wholly involved in the action or wholly in the state indicated by the verb. Thus, for verbs that may appear in both of the frames in (I), if Anderson's analysis is correct, the semantic interpretation of structures like (a) and (b) will be distinct in that in (a), NP1 should be interpreted holistically and NP2 should not, while in (b), NP2 should be interpreted holistically, and NP1 should not. After first examining some general characteristics of this class of verbs, I will point out some problems which are presented by Anderson's analysis.

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?

The role of noun phrases in misunderstandings in Brunei English in ELF settings

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ishamina Athirah ◽  
David Deterding
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Proper Noun ◽  
The World ◽  
New Varieties ◽  
Main Factor

AbstractInnovative usage of noun phrases is among the most widely reported features of new varieties of English throughout the world and also in discourse in ELF settings, but its effect on intelligibility has not been extensively investigated. In an attempt to remedy this, ten conversations in English between Bruneians and people from elsewhere were recorded, and a total of 153 tokens were identified in which the non-Bruneians did not understand the Bruneian speakers. In twenty of these tokens, the grammar of a noun phrase may be one factor in giving rise to the misunderstanding, involving added or absent articles, innovative use of plurals, and the unexpected gender of a pronoun. Further analysis suggests that non-standard grammar was probably the main factor in just four of these tokens, two involving an added article before a proper noun, one with a spurious

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.

Licensing by modification: The case of Frenchdenominals

2012 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 389-426
Author(s):  
ÉRIC MATHIEU
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Head Movement ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
The Other ◽  
Positive Effect

The aim of this paper is to provide an analysis of the positive effect that modification has on the distribution of noun phrases in otherwise illicit environments. I focus ondenominals in French. By focusing on these nominals, whose distribution is altered by the addition of modifiers, the paper shows that modifiers can do much more than simply modify: they can change the syntactic and semantic status of a noun phrase. The licensing property of modifiers is an intriguing topic and has not been greatly discussed in the literature. I argue that modifiers can come to play the role of determiners in French as long as they are accompanied by a headde, which is the spell-out of a Cardinal head (see Lyons 1999). My proposal goes back to an old idea put forward by Damourette & Pichon (1911–1940) according to which, in modified contexts,defunctions as one half of the article while the adjective functions as the other half. More generally, articles in French are seen as dual entities comprising of a specifier and a head. In the absence of the determinerles, an adjective can raise to the specifier of CardinalP. This is achieved via phrasal rather than head movement.

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