Zur Interpretation adnominaler Genitive bei nominalisierten Infinitiven im Deutschen

2010 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Bücking
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Abductive Reasoning ◽  
Semantic Properties ◽  
Different Sources

AbstractThe argumental status of verbal participants in event nominalizations is still under debate. Investigating syntactic and semantic properties of referentially interpreted genitive noun phrases related to German nominalized infinitives (= NI), cf.Evidence for the proposed asymmetric analysis comes from two sources: it will be shown that the alleged agentive genitive contributes a possessive relation not identical to the verbal agentive interpretation. The conceptual preference for an identification with the verbal agent will be accounted for by abductive reasoning thereby explaining the modifier's argument-like behavior. In addition, as data on NI from different sources reveal, the genitive interpretation is mainly conditioned by lexical properties of the base verb. In particular, it will be shown that a postnominal agentive interpretation is bound to configurations where the theme is independently predicted optional. These findings follow from the proposed asymmetry.

Réflexions Sur la Théorie de L'article de Gustave Guillaume

1986 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-151
Author(s):  
Stanislaw Karolak
Keyword(s):  
Functional Calculus ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Sharp Contrast ◽  
The Other ◽  
Applied Method ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Classical Work ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Semantic Properties

This paper is concerned with the analysis of the theory of the French article presented in the classical work by Guillaume "Le problème de l'article et sa solution dans la langue française". The paper emphasizes Guillaume's search for the semantic nature of the relationships determining the distribution of articles. The paper supports Guillaume, who seems to claim, contrary to what is commonly believed, that the function of the articles is non inherent in them, but that it is determined by the semantic properties of the nouns which select them. Treating this claim as the starting point, the paper focuses on the analysis of various senses of noun phrases, carried out in terms of the functional calculus. The applied method invalidates the extensional theory of the noun accepted by Guillaume, as well as a number of generalisations made by him. The paper shows logical and semantic conditions of some rules governing the use of the article. They differ from those proposed by Guillaume in that they seem to reach a deeper level of linguistic mechanisms. On the other hand, the emphasis is laid on Guillaume's subtle analysis and detailed observations, which stand in a sharp contrast to his rather vague generalizations.

scholarly journals TO-INFINITIVE CLAUSES IN ACADEMIC DISCOURSE – NATIVE AND NON-NATIVE WRITERS COMPARED

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Zuzana Kozáčiková
Keyword(s):  
American Studies ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Text Formation ◽  
Semantic Properties

The objective of the paper is to examine the use of non-fi nite clauses, more specifi cally to-infi nitive clauses, in written academic discourse and the application of their syntactic and semantic properties in a selected corpus. Based on Quirk et al.’s (1985) subdivision they can be viewed as formal means of text formation and may have nominal, relative and adverbial meaning. This functional classifi cation resembles to some extent that of subclausal units such as noun phrases and adverbs. The analysis focuses on subordinate to-infi nitive clauses in selected papers found in Topics in Linguistics, an international scientifi c journal published by the Department of English and American Studies, Faculty of Arts, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia. Moreover, it tries to investigate possible differences in the application of the presented structure by native and non-native writers of English.

Generic noun phrases in mother–child conversations

1998 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
ATHINA PAPPAS ◽  
SUSAN A. GELMAN
Keyword(s):  
Preschool Children ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Striking Difference ◽  
Plural Noun ◽  
Conceptual Organization ◽  
Single Instance ◽  
Essential Properties ◽  
Singular Noun ◽  
Context Free ◽  
Semantic Properties

Generic noun phrases (e.g. Tigers are fierce) are of interest for their semantic properties: they capture ‘essential’ properties, are timeless, and are context-free. The present study examines use of generic noun phrases by preschool children and their mothers. Mother–child pairs were videotaped while looking through a book of animal pictures. Each page depicted either a single instance of a particular category (e.g. one crab) or multiple instances of a particular category (e.g. many crabs). The results indicated a striking difference in how generics vs. non-generics were distributed, both in the speech of mothers and in the speech of preschool children. Whereas the form of non-generic noun phrases was closely linked to the structure of the page (i.e. singular noun phrases were used more often when a single instance was presented; plural noun phrases were used more often when multiple instances were presented), the form of generic noun phrases was independent of the information depicted (e.g. plural noun phrases were as frequent when only one instance was presented as when multiple instances were presented). We interpret the data as providing evidence that generic noun phrases differ in their semantics and conceptual organization from non-generic noun phrases, both in the input to young children and in children's own speech. Thus, this simple linguistic device may provide input to, and a reflection of, children's early developing notion of ‘kinds’.

On a multifunctional derivational affix: Its use in relational adjectives or nominal modification and phrasal affixation in Hungarian

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
István Kenesei
Keyword(s):  
Proper Names ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Conceptual Semantic ◽  
Morphological Processes ◽  
Referential Expressions ◽  
Carry Over ◽  
Referential Function ◽  
Semantic Properties

The -i derivative affix is an old conundrum in the grammar of Hungarian. It is regularly classified as a fully productive affix deriving adjectives from nouns of various semantic properties including geographical and proper names. It is usually also claimed that it can occur on postpositions and some adverbials, but since these are closed classes the use of the affix in these cases is not productive. We challenge the accepted wisdom and argue that the affix is productive across the board and the meanings its derivatives represent are highly predictable. Canonical adjectives have a number of characteristics that these derivative adjectives do not, which suggests that the latter are an alternative to modification by noun, rather than adjectives proper. On the other hand, i-affixation can take referential noun phrases as its base, a phenomenon found in other morphological processes in this language, as well as in other languages. Referential adjectives based on inherently referential expressions, proper names in particular, can carry over the referential function in a conceptual-semantic, though not in a syntactic sense. I-modifiers work much the same way in Hungarian, but there are also differences, as shown in relation to result nominals as well as complex event nominals.

Differential object marking in Hungarian

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
András Bárány
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Main Claim ◽  
Person Features ◽  
Third Person ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Object Marking ◽  
Object Agreement ◽  
Semantic Properties ◽  
Main Factor

This chapter provides an overview of differential object agreement in Hungarian. Finite verbs in Hungarian always agree with the subject in person and number, and sometimes agree with the object. Generally, the trigger of object agreement is argued to be related to definiteness. It is argued that while both syntactic and semantic properties are relevant for determining object agreement, the syntactic structure of the object is the main factor: objects have to be DPs to agree, and can sometimes even be indefinite. The focus is on lexical, third person noun phrases, including common nouns and proper names, and modifiers like numerals, different types of quantifiers. The main claim is that objects that trigger agreement have a person feature, which makes them referential, but objects that do not trigger agreement lack person features.

Indeterminacy, Incompleteness, Indecision, and Other Semantic Phenomena

2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Montminy
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Incompleteness ◽  
Indeterminacy Thesis ◽  
Exhaustive Study ◽  
Semantic Properties ◽  
Different Sources ◽  
Shed Light

This paper explores the relationships between Davidson's indeterminacy of interpretation thesis and two semantic properties of sentences that have come to be recognized recently, namely semantic incompleteness and semantic indecision. More specifically, I will examine what the indeterminacy thesis entails for sentences of the form ‘By sentence S (or word w), agent A means that m’ and ‘Agent A believes that p.’ My primary goal is to shed light on the indeterminacy thesis and its consequences. I will distinguish two kinds of indeterminacy that have very different sources and very different consequences. But this does not purport to be an exhaustive study: there may well be other forms of indeterminacy that this paper does not address.I will first explain the phenomena of semantic incompleteness and semantic indecision, and then explore their relationships with the indeterminacy thesis.

Incremental “Walls”

1998 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Mila Dimitrova-Vulchanova
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Slavic Language ◽  
Current Analysis ◽  
Semantic Properties

The present paper addresses the well-known alternation type “spray paint on the wall/ spray the wall with paint” which has received extensive attention in the literature. The discussion is based on Germanic data (English, German and Norwegian) and data from one Slavic language (Bulgarian). In trying to amend previous proposals (e.g. Tenny 1987, 1994, Jackendoff 1996) and resolve issues left open in those works, the current analysis suggests that the semantic properties of both entities involved in a situation denoted by “spray” are relevant for the aspectual properties of the respective constructions headed by “spray”, i.e. both the substance sprayed, and the surface subjected to spraying. It is proposed that the aspectual properties of such constructions reside primarily in the semantic characterization, including the ontological properties, of the latter, coupled to their linguistic realization as distinct types of noun phrases.

scholarly journals Towards licensing of adverbial noun phrases in HPSG

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beata Trawinski
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Empirical Generalizations ◽  
Semantic Properties

This paper focuses on aspects of the licensing of adverbial noun phrases (AdvNPs) in the HPSG grammar framework. In the first part, empirical issues will be discussed. A number of AdvNPs will be examined with respect to various linguistic phenomena in order to find out to what extent AdvNPs share syntactic and semantic properties with non-adverbial NPs.Based on empirical generalizations, a lexical constraint for licensing both AdvNPs and non-adverbial NPs will be provided. Further on, problems of structural licensing of phrases containing AdvNPs that arise within the standard HPSG framework of Pollard and Sag (1994) will be pointed out, and a possible solution will be proposed. The objective is to provide a constraint-based treatment of NPs which describes non-redundantly both their adverbial and non-adverbial usages. The analysis proposed in this paper applies lexical and phrasal implicational constraints and does not require any radical modifications or extensions of the standard HPSG geometry of Pollard and Sag (1994).

scholarly journals Similarities and differences between two Hungarian particles for also: szintén and is

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 74-91
Author(s):  
Judit Farkas ◽  
Bettina Futó ◽  
Aliz Huszics ◽  
Judit Kleiber ◽  
Mónika Dóla ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Dynamic Theory ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Propositional Truth ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Syntactic Differences ◽  
Core Meaning ◽  
Semantic Properties

The paper provides a comparative analysis of the syntax, semantics and pragmatics of two Hungarian particles with the same logical core meaning also: is and szintén. The analysis yields important theoretical implications since it demonstrates how two particles sharing the same logical-propositional/truth-functional core meaning can expand into two different markers. In discourse, is acts as an intensional/metacognitive pragmatic marker in the sense as proposed by Aijmer et al. (2006), while szintén functions as a coherence-signaling discourse marker. The two particles share certain syntactic-semantic properties: neither of them can be followed by a topic, they both have distributive meaning, and both of them can pertain to the noun phrase that they immediately follow, as well as to ordered n-tuples of noun phrases. However, there are also syntactic and pragmasemantic differences between them. Namely, their ordered n-tuples have different word orders; is can function as a pragmatic marker while szintén cannot; szintén can appear as a separate clause, while is cannot (this is presumably related to the fact that szintén can be stressed, while is is obligatorily unstressed); and finally, szintén can have a peculiar discourse-preserving function. We explain the syntactic differences between the two particles using the partial spell-out technique of minimalist generative syntacticians (first applied to Hungarian by Surányi 2009), and the Cinque-hierarchy-based approach to Hungarian sentence- and predicate-adverbials (Surányi 2008). We account for the pragmasemantic properties of the pragmatic-marker variant of is in the formal representational dynamic theory of interpretation called ReALIS, already presented in the LingBaW series (Alberti et al. 2016, Kleiber and Alberti 2017, Viszket et al. 2019).

Similar, and Similar Concepts

2020 ◽  
pp. 736-789
Author(s):  
Lila R. Gleitman ◽  
Henry Gleitman ◽  
Carol Miller ◽  
Ruth Ostrin
Keyword(s):  
North Korea ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Experimental Subjects ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
General Linguistic ◽  
Experimental Findings ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Semantic Properties

This paper analyzes English symmetrical predicates such as collide and match. Its point of departure is an analysis of the concept “similar” from Tversky (1977) that appears to show that similarity is psychologically asymmetrical. One basis for this claim from Tversky is that the sentences “North Korea is similar to Red China” and “Red China is similar to North Korea” are assessed as differing in meaning by experimental subjects; this seems to imply that the symmetrical entailment R(x,y) ↔︎ R(y,x) fails for this concept. Five experiments are presented that show (1) the apparent asymmetry of similar is reproduced for 20 predicates that are intuitively thought to be symmetrical, (2) unique linguistic-interpretive properties hold for these symmetrical words, such as reciprocal interpretation when they appears intransitively, (3) the asymmetrical interpretation of subject-complement constructions containing the symmetrical words is a consequence of general linguistic-interpretive principles. On the basis of the experimental findings, we offer an analysis of symmetrical predication. One major claim of the analysis is that symmetry is a property of lexical items and has no special syntax. A second claim is that the structural positioning of Noun Phrases in sentences containing symmetricals—rather than inherent semantic properties of the Noun Phrases themselves—sets their status as Figure and Ground in the comparison, even if the nouns are nonsense items. Finally the behavior of symmetrical predicates is shown to vary as a function of their differing lexical class assignments and collateral semantic designations, such as activity vs. state. Most generally, it is claimed that a deeper understanding of symmetrical terms comes from analyzing the semantics of syntactic structures in which they appear.

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