Contents:
NP | Quantifiers | Logical Structure of NP |
Keywords - L322.2 S03
Contents:
NP | Quantifiers | Logical Structure of NP |
Week 2: The Logical Structure of the
Noun Phrase--Part 1.
- Object
- No argument
- Thing
- One or more arguments
- Container
- Ruler
- Part-Whole (the legs of a table)
- Description of (size, colour, length, depth, height, etc.)
- Features
- Inherent
- Category
- N, V, A, P, Q, D, C, UQ, and so forth
- Chomskyan system: +N, +V = noun, etc.
- Count/Mass
- [±Ct_Inh]
- [±Ct] <- [+Ct_inh]
- Number [±Pl] in certain nouns:
- [±Pl_Inh]
- If [-Ct]
- number is inherent
- police, cattle: ([+Pl]);
- news: ([-Pl]));
- [-Ct] (mass) = [-Pl].
- If [+Ct]
- Acquired
- Number [±Pl]
- Gender
- [±Gender-Inherent] ([±GI])
- [+GI]
- [±Fem] ([-Fem] = masculine
- [-GI]
- neuter (in English); no subfeature here.
- Case: [±Case_Inh]
- If [-Case_Inh]
- Case [±Nom]
- [-Case_Inh] in all nouns.
- Lexical entries
- [+Ct]
DOG
Lexical Item
dog
orthographic form
+
Count_Inh
+
Count
POLICE
Lexical Item
police
orthographic form
+
Count_Inh
-
Count
WATER
Lexical Item
water
orthographic form
+
Count_Inh
-
Count
- Expanded Lexical Entry: phonological form, category, [±Plural], [±GS] (Gender-Specific), [±Nom]
BOOK
lexical item
N
category
book
orthographic form
/bËk/
phonological form
+
Count_Inh
+
Count
-
Plural_Inh
Plural
-
Gender_Inh
-
Case_Inh
Case
POLICE
lexical item
N
category
police
orthographic form
/p-lîs/
phonological form
+
Count_Inh
-
Count
+
Plural_Inh
+
Plural
-
GI
-
Case_Inh
Nom
WATER
Lexical Item
N
category
water
orthographic form
/wátr/
phonological form
+
Count_Inh
-
Count
+
Plural_Inh
-
Plural
-
GI
-
Case_Inh
Case
[THING], [CONTAINER], [RULER], [RELATION], [PART OF], [DESCRIPTION OF]
Predicate <argument> (conceptual structure)
Head <argument> (syntax)
- [phrase [head] [argument]]
(standard bracketed structure; does not specifically point to head. Tree diagrams are a notational variant of bracked structure.)
(1) The rules of presyntax often combine these two minimal eventualities into one of two deep structures:
- (2) John suddently saw Mary = [ SUDDENLY [ SEE JOHN MARY ]].
- (3) John's sight of Mary was sudden = [[ SEE JOHN MARY] SUDDEN].
Or the two minimal eventualities are not combined:
- (4) John saw Mary. It was sudden.
We will not cover the rules of presyntax. We will concentrate on formal syntax, the rules that produce a surface sentence from its underlying deep structure.
(5)
BOOK
N
category
book
orthographic form
/bËk/
phonological form
+
Count_Inh
+
Count
-
Plural_Inh
Plural
-
GI
-
Case_Inh
Case The new slot is category, and here it is N. Therefore, in the above tree structure, N is selected and assigned to [THING].
- Normally a phrase is named after the head of the phrase:
- VP -> V NP
- NP -> N PP
- AP -> A AP
- PP -> P NP
- Therefore:
(2)
- Normally, such a phrase is called NP.(2)
- Q is seen as a modifier
- Q is an operator
- book is its argument -- its complement.
- Why is it also (and usually) called an NP?
- Logically, it is in the projection of Q.
- But the phrase (*QP) occurs within the projection of an 'object': <object> in (2).
- <object> is always a noun, N.
- The projection is of N, not of Q, in terms of the arguments of the verb.
- Hence NP (for many linguists, for me both).
(3)
Government
- A governs B if and only if:
- A commonds B
- A is a head
- There is no intervening governor C, such that A governs C, and C governs B
- B is a complement of A.
Lexical Entry--one more slot:
Arguments assigned and the theta roles assigned to them:
CUP lexical item N category cup orthographic form /k-p/ phonological form + Count_Inh + Count - Plural_Inh Plural - GI - Case_Inh Case <theme> arguments and associate theta roles <object> logico-semantic feature (major) [Container] Semantic Feature (minor) [Concrete] selectional restriction
- Government: X governs Y iff:
- If X c-commands Y
- X is a governor = head, [+G]
- If there is no intervening governor W such that X governs W, and W governs Y.
- the governee may be a head or phrase:
(4)
(5)
Links
- A links holds between a governor and its governee
- A link transers information from one node to another
- This is part of information theory--how information is transferred
- Later it will become import to claim that links link like features in the governor and the governee
- So let us now assume this position:
- The green line shows categorial linking
- The mauve line shows feature linking.
No agreement (non-matching of features)
- The purple line shows the lack of agreement for the feature [Ct].
- This leads to an ungrammatical construction:
- A phrase containing a pair of features that do not agree under terms of agreement is rendered ungrammatical.
- A sentence containing such a phrase is rendered ungrammatical.
- Determiners and 'a', 'one', and [null].
- the is [+Def]
- 'a' is formally a quantifier.
- 'a' /w^n/ is the orthographic/phonological form of ONE when it is the first pronounced word in the NP containing it.
- Otherwise, it is [NULL]:
- Mary saw one book (ONE BOOK)
- Mary saw the book (THE ONE BOOK)
- 'one' is emphatic, 'a' is not.
- Mary saw one book. (ONE BOOK)
- Mary saw the one book. (THE ONE BOOK)
- The singular quantifier is [NULL] in 'the book'.
- All of these morphological variants are formally ONE.
- lexical entry for 'a', 'one,' the base form
Base form for ONE:
ONE lexical item Q (Qu) catgegory <theme?> arguments and associated theta roles + Count_Inh + Count + Plural_Inh - Plural "1" semantic form The base for ONE is linked to lexical items which have the orthographic and phonological information. These lexical items are included as part of the lexical entry of ONE:
lexical item for 'a'
ONE lexical item a orthographic form /´/ (schwa) phonological form <theme?> arguments and associated theta roles + Count_Inh + Count Plural_Inh - Plural context: [NP [NULL] ____ [-Voc]] lexical item for 'an'
ONE lexical item an orthographic form /æn/ phonological form <theme?> arguments and associated theta roles + Count_Inh + Count Plural_Inh - Plural context: [NP [NULL] ____ [+ Voc]] orthographic form for '[NULL]' = 1:
ONE lexical item [NULL] orthographic form / [NULL]/ phonological form <theme?> arguments and associated theta roles + Count_Inh + Count + Plural_Inh - Plural Context: [NP [a] ____ ], a stands for phonetic content. Lexical item for 'one':
ONE lexical item one orthographic form / w^n/ phonological form <theme?> arguments and associated theta roles + Count_Inh + Count + Plural_Inh - Plural Context: [NP [+Emph] ], also when used as a numeral. The lexical entry for TWO is:
TWO lexical item two orthographic form / tu/ phonological form <theme?> arguments and associated theta roles + Count_Inh + Count + Plural_Inh + Plural The lexical entries for three, four, and so forth are similar to that of TWO.
Two more feature slots: selectional restrictions, semantic features.
CUP lexical item cup orthographic form /k^p/ phonological form <theme> arguments and associate theta roles + Count_Inh + Count - Plural_Inh Plural - GI - Case_Inh Case [Concrete] selectional restriction [CONTAINER] Semantic Feature (major)
This page last updated 5 JA 2003
