The structure of Argobba nominal phrase

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-151
Author(s):  
Amare Getahun
Keyword(s):  
Internal Structure ◽  
Phrase Structure ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Possessive Pronoun ◽  
Phrase Structure Grammar ◽  
Nominal Phrase ◽  
Semitic Language ◽  
Internal Agreement

Abstract This paper analyzes the internal structure of Argobba nominal phrase in Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) formalism. Argobba is a seriously endangered Semitic language in Ethiopia. Unlike its sister languages in the Ethio-Semitic subfamily, Argobba nouns qualified by a demonstrative, possessive pronoun and genitive NP bear a definite article. It is argued in this paper that the definite article is not an independent syntactic element, but an affix, which is attached to indefinite nouns lexically. It is argued that the derivation of Argobba definite common nouns is captured by the Definite Lexical Rule (DLR). The paper also claims that the NP internal agreement of specifiers and modifiers with the head noun is accounted for by the SPEC and MOD features that impose certain constraints on the morphosyntactic features of the head noun.

Features of Annexion Strings in Colloquial and Literary Arabic and Hebrew

Arabica ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-289
Author(s):  
Judith Rosenhouse
Keyword(s):  
Phrase Structure ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Text Generation ◽  
Nominal Phrase ◽  
Semitic Language ◽  
Colloquial Arabic ◽  
Literary Arabic ◽  
Automatic Text

AbstractArabic annexion is a basic and frequent nominal (phrase) structure which can be important not only in itself but also for translation and automatic text generation applications. The structure is expanded by concatenating to it more nouns, thus forming annexion strings. We examine here whether in colloquial and Modern Literary Arabic similar limitations exist, whether there are differences between them. Limitations and constraints on the number of words that can be connected in an annexion string were investigated for another Semitic language, Hebrew (Rosenhouse, “On the use”, “Construct”, and here). This study compares also Hebrew and Arabic annexion strings from the point of view of their length limitations. The article is based on literary Arabic as used in newspapers and books and on transcribed texts of colloquial Arabic. Some Hebrew journalese and spoken texts have also been examined for comparison. Our findings suggest positive answers to our questions.

Partitive and pseudo-partitive revisited: Reflections on the status of ‘de’ in French

1991 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Battye
Keyword(s):  
Internal Structure ◽  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Phrase Structure ◽  
Functional Projection ◽  
Nominal Phrase ◽  
Indefinite Article ◽  
The Status

AbstractThe radical structural distinction often proposed between pseudo-partitive (i.e. beaucoup de problèmes) and partitive (i.e. beaucoup des problèmes épineux) is argued to be the by-product of too restrictive a view of the internal structure of the noun phrase in French. A more articulated nominal phrase structure is adopted here, one which makes. use of the idea of the determiner being itself the head of a functional projection (the so-called DP-panalysis). This DP approach to partitive and pseudo-partitive configurations, it is proposed, also allows for a reappraisal of what are traditionally termed the partitive and plural indefinite article (i.e. du, de la, de l' and des).

A (phrasal) affix analysis of the Persian Ezafe

2007 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 605-645 ◽  
Author(s):  
POLLET SAMVELIAN
Keyword(s):  
Phrase Structure ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
Phrase Structure Grammar ◽  
Grammatical Relations ◽  
Case Marker ◽  
The Status ◽  
Nominal Morphology

This paper discusses the status of the Ezafe particle -(y)e in Persian and provides an affixal analysis of the Ezafe, formalized within Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). The Ezafe, a feature of certain Western Iranian languages, is realized as an enclitic and links the head noun to its modifiers and to the possessor NP. The latter follow the head and are linked to one another by the Ezafe. On the basis of crucial empirical facts that have never been discussed in previous studies, I argue that the Ezafe is best regarded as an affix attaching to nominal heads (nouns, adjectives and some prepositions), as well as to nominal intermediate projections, and marking them as expecting a modifier or a direct nominal complement. Viewed as such, the Ezafe construction is an instance of the head-marked pattern of morphological marking of grammatical relations. This analysis differs from all previous accounts of the Ezafe (i.e. as case-marker, syntactic or phonological linker) and entails that the Ezafe, which originated in the Old Iranian relative particle -hya, has undergone a process of reanalysis-grammaticalization, to end up as a part of nominal morphology.

scholarly journals Group adjectives

2002 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stella Markantonatou ◽  
Bjarne Ørsnes
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Phrase Structure ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
Central Problem ◽  
Phrase Structure Grammar ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
Lexical Structure

AbstractThis paper attempts a comparative syntactic study of group adjectives in Danish, English and Modern Greek. The central problem with group adjectives is to account for the contrast between their seemingly argumental behaviour and their inability to introduce new referents into the discourse. We propose a novel analysis whereby group adjectives form a weakly lexical structure with their head noun and modify the first argument of the argument structure of the head noun while the argument itself remains unexpressed. If this analysis is right, it lends support to the representation of argument structure as a level which is simultaneously distinct from the representation of syntactic valency and participates in valency saturation phenomena. The framework is that of Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG).

Regularity and idiosyncracy in the formation of nominals

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 823-858 ◽  
Author(s):  
FRANK VAN EYNDE
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Phrase Structure ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Alternative Treatments ◽  
Phrase Structure Grammar ◽  
Proper Place ◽  
Nominal Phrase ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Higher Types

This paper explores the interaction of regularity and idiosyncracy in the formation of nominals. It treats both nominals whose formation is highly regular, such as red box, and nominals whose formation is rather idiosyncratic, such as the Big Mess Construction (bmc; so good a bargain) and the Binominal Noun Phrase Construction (bnpc; her nitwit of a husband). Both the bmc and the bnpc conform to productive patterns, but the proper place of those patterns in the grammar as a whole is not easy to identify. To rise to the challenge, we build on recent developments in Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar and the more formally inclined strands of Construction Grammar. Taking a cue from the treatment of clausal constructions in Ginzburg & Sag (2000), we develop a bi-dimensional hierarchy of nominal phrase types, in which the regular nominals inherit their properties from independently motivated higher types, while the idiosyncratic nominals are characterized by a mixture of inherited and inherent properties. The resulting treatment is sufficiently flexible to deal with the subtle interaction between the regular and the idiosyncratic, and sufficiently rigorous to be falsifiable. It is also compared with alternative treatments.

Word order in the nominal phrase

2019 ◽  
pp. 108-162
Author(s):  
Alexandru Nicolae
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
The Other ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Nominal Phrase ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One ◽  
Residual Head

This chapter examines the main changes in the syntax of Romanian nominal phrases as they are reflected in the ordering of DP-internal constituents. The first part of the chapter focuses on the ‘low definite article’, i.e. structures in which the noun bearing the definite article occupies a non-DP-initial position. The low definite article is relevant to the emergence of the Romanian article (its suffixal nature singles out Romanian in Romance) on the one hand and to the understanding of the freer DP-internal word order characteristic of old Romanian on the other hand. The changes in the position of adjectives relative to the head noun and in the linearization of adjectives with respect to one another are then addressed. Finally, residual head-final structures in the nominal and adjectival domain and discontinuous constituents are analysed.

scholarly journals An HPSG account of closest conjunct agreement in NP coordination in Portuguese

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aline Villavicencio ◽  
Louisa Sadler ◽  
Doug Arnold
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Phrase Structure ◽  
Phrase Structure Grammar ◽  
Conservative Extension ◽  
Closest Conjunct Agreement ◽  
Internal Agreement

This paper discusses the NP-internal agreement strategies observed in an empirical (corpus based) study of Portuguese, and proposes an analysis which is formalized in the framework of Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). The empirical study suggests that what were previously thought to be rare or non-existent strategies occur with surprising frequency. Capturing these strategies poses problems for many standard approaches to agreement. The formalization shows how they can be captured with a relatively conservative extension of the existing HPSG theory of agreement.

Adjectives as roots of nominal groups: the big mess construction in dependency grammar

2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 231-263
Author(s):  
Timothy Osborne
Keyword(s):  
Phrase Structure ◽  
Current Approach ◽  
Normal Position ◽  
Phrase Structure Grammar ◽  
Dependency Grammar ◽  
Attributive Adjective ◽  
Nominal Groups

Abstract The so-called ‘Big Mess Construction’ (BMC) frustrates standard assumptions about the structure of nominal groups. The normal position of an attributive adjective is after the determiner and before the noun, but in the BMC, the adjective precedes the determiner, e.g. that strange a sound, so big a scandal, too lame an excuse. Previous accounts of the BMC are couched in ‘Phrase Structure Grammar’ (PSG) and view the noun or the determiner (or the preposition of) as the root/head of the BMC phrase. In contrast, the current approach, which is couched in a ‘Dependency Grammar’ (DG) model, argues that the adjective is in fact the root/head of the phrase. A number of insights point to the adjective as the root/head, the most important of which is the optional appearance of the preposition of, e.g. that strange of a sound, so big of a scandal, too lame of an excuse.

What participles are a mixture of

Linguistics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Van Eynde
Keyword(s):  
Phrase Structure ◽  
The Other ◽  
Second Step ◽  
Phrase Structure Grammar ◽  
Mixed Nature

Abstract It is commonly assumed that participles show a mixture of verbal and adjectival properties, but the issue of how this mixed nature can best be captured is anything but settled. Analyses range from the purely adjectival to the purely verbal with various shades in between. This lack of consensus is at least partly due to the fact that participles are used in a variety of ways and that an analysis which fits one of them is not necessarily equally plausible for the other. In an effort to overcome the resulting fragmentation this paper proposes an analysis that covers all uses of the participles, from the adnominal over the predicative to the free adjunct uses, including also the nominalized ones. To keep it feasible we focus on one language, namely Dutch. With the help of a treebank we first identify the uses of the Dutch participles and describe their properties in informal terms. In a second step we provide an analysis in terms of the notation of Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar. A key property of the analysis is the differentiation between core uses and grammaticalized uses. The treatment of the latter is influenced by insights from Grammaticalization Theory.

NPs, not DPs: The NP vs. DP debate in the context of dependency grammar

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Osborne
Keyword(s):  
Phrase Structure ◽  
Frequent Occurrence ◽  
Sentence Structure ◽  
Phrase Structure Grammar ◽  
Dependency Grammar ◽  
Nominal Groups

AbstractThis paper considers the NP vs. DP debate from the perspective of dependency grammar (DG). The message is delivered that given DG assumptions about sentence structure, the traditional NP-analysis of nominal groups is preferable over the DP-analysis. The debate is also considered from the perspective of phrase structure grammar (PSG). While many of the issues discussed here do not directly support NP over DP given PSG assumptions, some do. More importantly, one has to accept the widespread presence of null determiner heads for the DP analysis to be plausible on PSG assumptions. The argument developed at length here is that the traditional NP-analysis of nominal groups is both more accurate and simpler than the DP-analysis, in part because it does not rely on the frequent occurrence of null determiners.

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