scholarly journals ˋAgreement mismatch' between sort/kind/type and the determiner

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takafumi Maekawa
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Common Noun ◽  
Countable Noun ◽  
The One

A singular countable noun in English normally needs a determiner and they should agree in number. However, there is a type of noun phrase, such as ‘these sort of skills’, which does not conform to this generalisation. As a singular countable common noun, the noun ‘sort’ requires a determiner, but there is an agreement mismat ch here: ‘sort’ is singular but the determiner is plural. Rather, the determiner agrees with the NP after the preposition ‘of’. There are several po ssible analyses that might be proposed, but the best analysis is the one in which ‘sort’ and the preposition ‘of’ are ‘functors’, non-heads selecting heads.

Une Classification Formelle des Adjectifs Psychologiques en Coreen

1993 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-140
Author(s):  
Jeesun Nam
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Large Majority ◽  
Formal Criterion ◽  
Reflexive Pronoun ◽  
Complement Clause ◽  
Syntactic Relation ◽  
The One ◽  
Psychological Verbs ◽  
Morphological Relationship

In this work, we have tried to describe a set of adjectives which includes a large majority of those adjectives semantically termed psychological, by making use of the following syntactic relation: (Qu P)0 N1-e Ad) [(Qu P)0 be Adj Prep N1] = N1 (Qu P)0-fo Adj N1be Adj Prep (Qu P)0] We discuss most particularly: the construction in which the complement clause can be replaced by a noun phrase, possibly containing the reflexive pronoun caki; the construction with a double N-i, the one described most frequently in the literary tradition; and finally two related verbal constructions of the following type: N1 (Qu P)0-Acc Adf-6 Vop [N1 V(find) (Qu P)0 Adj°] = (Qu P)0 N1-Acc Adj1-ke Vop [(Qu P)0 V(make) N1 Adj1] Our formal criterion characterizes about 150 psychological adjectives that have a certain semantic and syntactic homogeneity : they all express "a feeling activated by the Qu P and felt by the Nhum". However, we observe another set of adjectives semantically close to the first which nevertheless do not accept the complement clause construction with -lo: we term them evaluative adjectives. One of the major differences between these two classes is the absence of causativity in the complement clause of the evaluative adjectives. The study of psychological adjectives should be extended by other studies, in particular studies of psychological verbs that have no morphological relationship to adjectives, and which are defined in turn by appropriate formal criteria.

scholarly journals Agreeing and substantivized adjectives in Russian paucal constructions: An experimental study

Rhema ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 50-71
Author(s):  
A. Gerasimova ◽  
E. Lyutikova
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Experimental Study ◽  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Syntactic Category ◽  
Structural Context ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Data Support ◽  
Russian Noun ◽  
Structural Case ◽  
The One

This paper addresses the issue of case variation in Russian paucal constructions. Previous studies claim that the choice of the case marking on the adjectival constituent depends on the syntactic category of the paucal construction. Using experimental data we show that the distribution of case marking strategies differs for paucal constructions in the quantificational position, where it does not receive structural case, and in the argumental position, where it receives case and agrees with the predicate. Although the experimental data support the hypothesis about the variable status of Russian noun phrase, it also shows the absence of the one-to-one correspondence between case marking and structural context: in particular, in quantificational positions both cases are acceptable.

scholarly journals Proper names used as modifiers: a comprehensive functional analysis

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 381-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
TINE BREBAN
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Proper Names ◽  
Functional Model ◽  
Alternative Analysis ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Proper Name ◽  
Dual Analysis ◽  
The One ◽  
Open Question ◽  
English Noun

My central concern is the special use of proper names in the English noun phrase first discussed by Rosenbach (2006, 2007, 2010; Koptjevskaja-Tamm & Rosenbach 2005): proper names which are used as modifiers with an identifying function, e.g. theBushadministration (‘Which administration does the noun phrase refer to? The one headed by Bush’). On the basis of a corpus study, I argue that existing analyses of Rosenbach (2007) and Schlücker (2013) fail to account for all cases; they also fail to capture the seemingly contradictory syntactic and functional properties of these proper names in a unified way. My alternative analysis is framed within Halliday's (1994) functional model of the English noun phrase, but radically thinks beyond the typical association of functions with word classes (see also Rijkhoff 2009). My proposal is that the majority of these proper names can be analysed as epithets, a function typically associated with adjectival modifiers such as theredcar. A smaller set, proper name modifiers such as aKerrysupporter, are analysed as complements (Payne & Huddleston 2002). I end by discussing the implications of this dual analysis for another open question, whether proper name modifiers are morphosyntactically phrasal modifiers or part of compounds.

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.

Semantic/pragmatic equivalence through formal and motivational shift

2004 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-49
Author(s):  
Harumi Moore
Keyword(s):  
Complex System ◽  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Complex Task ◽  
Grammatical Category ◽  
The One ◽  
Pragmatic Equivalence ◽  
Regular Number

Abstract How would translators approach a process in which they have to make decisions on mapping the grammatically enforced regular number mechanism of a language such as English onto a system like Japanese, where there is no regular coding of number in a noun phrase? Utilising the concepts of motivation for representation of number, and of ‘formal-shift’ (Catford, 1965), this paper demonstrates that in spite of the lack of a grammatical category of number, there is a coherent mechanism that expresses number distinction in Japanese, either implicitly or explicitly, and that in order to achieve the full semantic and pragmatic intent expressed in English in terms of the number of referents, translators have quite a complex task in deciding ‘when’ and ‘how’ to mark number in Japanese. The paper shows that the ‘one’ and ‘more than one’ opposition regularly coded in English is interpreted into a more complex system of number conception in Japanese, namely ‘one’, ‘more than one’, ‘collective image’ and ‘unspecified’. It also draws attention to the various linguistic devices used in Japanese to express number distinction outside the scope of a noun phrase. The paper advocates the usefulness of the approach suggested here for examining instances of transfer of meaning between two typologically distinct languages.

Towards chunk-based translation memories

Babel ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 343-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carme Colominas
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Minimum Cost ◽  
Memory Systems ◽  
Translation Memory ◽  
Maximum Gain ◽  
Sentence Level ◽  
Sentence Matching ◽  
The One ◽  
Made In

Most of the current Translation Memory systems are based on segments determined by marks that in most cases correspond to a complete sentence. The problem of complete sentence matching is that examples are often excluded from the matching candidates even though they probably contain one or more useful sub-segments that could be helpful to the translation. In view of these limitations, some proposals have been made in the literature regarding the possibility of building Translation Memory systems that operate “below” the sentence level, that is to say, at a sub-sentential level. Existing work demonstrates that sub-sentential segmentation of Translation Memories clearly shows a significantly best recall with respect to sentential.segmentation. Accepting the benefits of sub-sentential segmentation of Translation Memories, in this paper we consider different possibilities of sub sentential segmentation and attempt an evaluation of the recall (covering sequences of chunks) and the precision (usability of these chunks) obtained by noun phrase chunk segmentation.Our experiments show that pre- or postmodified NPs turn out to be especially adequate for pretranslation tasks tasks as they show a minimum cost by a maximum gain.. In other words, their translation is on the one side not trivial as it often involves structural divergences between language and at the same time they are context independent enough that they can be reused without changes in most cases.

scholarly journals Also d'Susi wär e ganz e liebi Frau für de Markus! Zur Verdoppelung des indefiniten Artikels in der adverbiell erweiterten Nominalphrase im Schweizerdeutschen

2005 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Janine Steiner
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Regional Differences ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Time Analysis ◽  
Indefinite Article ◽  
Swiss German ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Doubling Construction ◽  
The One

Three possible constructions of adverbially complemented noun phrases are attested in Swiss German. In (1), the indefinite article is doubled, whereas in (2) and (3) the article appears only once; it precedes or follows the adverb, respectively: (1) Also d' Susi wär e ganz e liebi Frau für de Markus! So the Susi would_be Art really Art lovely wife for the Markus! 'Susi would be a really lovely wife for Markus!' (2) Also d' Susi wär ganz e liebi Frau für de Markus! So the Susi would_be really Art lovely wife for the Markus! 'Susi would be a really lovely wife for Markus!' (3) Also d' Susi wär e ganz liebi Frau für de Markus! So the Susi would_be Art really lovely wife for the Markus! 'Susi would be a really lovely wife for Markus!' Doubling of the indefinite article is quite often mentioned in dialectological literature. Unfortunately there is nothing to be found about regional differences, frequency or possible contexts for a doubling in most standard works of Swiss German dialectology. The present paper now fills in some of these gaps in research on the adverbially complemented noun phrase in Swiss German: In a quantitative analysis will be shown that the construction with the article between adverb and adjective (2) is the one given the highest acceptance and preference rates by the informants. Furthermore the paper also shows that the doubling-construction (1) is more prominent in some Swiss German speaking-areas than in others. An apparent time analysis reveals ongoing language change and, last but not least, it shows that sociolinguistic parameters have an impact on the adverbially complemented noun phrase as well.

scholarly journals Seminumerals, determiners and nouns in English

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takafumi Maekawa
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
Number Agreement ◽  
Countable Noun

A singular countable noun in English normally requires a determiner and they should agree in number. However, there is a type of noun phrase, such as those thousand teachers, which does not conform to this generalisation. As a subtype of singular countable noun, thousand requires a determiner, but the determiner has number agreement with the head noun teachers. The standard HPSG treatment, in which the determiner requirement and the determiner-noun agreement are both represented in the SPR specifications of the head noun, cannot capture this special agreement pattern. Our analysis, in which the determiner requirement and the determiner-noun agreement are dissociated from each other, can provide a straightforward account of the data.

Subordinate subject deletion in Russian

1970 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Gunter H. Schaarschmidt
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
List Type ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
Verb Phrases ◽  
The One

Most, if not all natural languages possess complex sentences in which one single noun phrase serves as the superficial subject for two or more verbs. The most obvious case is the one involving sentences with co-ordinate verb phrases as in (1): (1)the man hit the girl and kicked the boyHowever, inasmuch as in the case of co-ordinate constructions one single noun phrase can also serve as the object of two or more verbs, such constructions will not be our concern in this paper. That is, any analysis that can characterize a sentence such as (1), can also characterize a sentence such as (2), where the girl is the object of both hit and kicked.(2)the man hit and kicked the girlIn this paper, we will restrict our attention to constructions involving coreferential subordinate subject deletion in Russian, i.e., infinitival, gerundial and participial clauses.* We will demonstrate that, despite many superficial differences, such constructions can be characterized in terms of essentially the same general grammatical process: the deletion of a redundantly repeated, subordinate subject NP. This analysis will be shown to be more adequate than one which requires the postulation of a set of two or more independent transformations which describe the data in an ad hoc way.

NP-internal agreement and the structure of the noun phrase

2006 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
FRANK VAN EYNDE
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Generative Grammar ◽  
Syntactic Category ◽  
Semantic Types ◽  
The One ◽  
Uniform Treatment ◽  
Internal Agreement ◽  
Natural Way

For the analysis of the noun phrase, the treatment which currently prevails in generative grammar is the one in which the head of the noun phrase is identified with the determiner, rather than with the noun. This D(et)P treatment has the advantage of providing a uniform account of all syntactic categories, both the substantive and the functional ones, and it provides a natural way to capture the co-occurrence restrictions between nouns and determiners, but it also faces a number of empirical problems. To solve them I propose an analysis in which the head of the noun phrase is identified with the noun, but in which the advantages of the DP treatment are incorporated as much as possible. This is done in two steps. First, I argue that the requirement (or the desirability) of a uniform treatment of all syntactic categories does not by itself favour the DP treatment, since there is no empirical evidence for the postulation of a separate syntactic category for the determiners. The argumentation is mainly based on an analysis of NP-internal agreement data and leads to the conclusion that the class of determiners is syntactically heterogeneous: there are the adjectival determiners, which are subject to morpho-syntactic agreement, and (pro)nominal ones, which are exempt from this agreement. Second, I dissociate the roles of head and selector. All prenominals, both the specifying and the modifying ones, are treated as functors which select a nominal head, rather than as heads which select a nominal complement. This functor treatment accounts in a natural and straightforward way for both morpho-syntactic agreement and semantic types of agreement. The language which is used for exemplification is Dutch, but at various points comparisons are made with German and English.

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