Keywords - L322.2a F98

Intermediate Syntax

Week 2

Contents: NP | Quantifiers |

Full Notes on noun agreement

Week 2: The Logical Structure of the Noun Phrase--Part 1.

• NP

N head of NP

Object

Features

Inherent

Count/Mass

Gender

Number in certain nouns (police, cattle)

Acquired

Number

Lexical entry (initial)

 

DOG	Lexical Item
dog	orthographic form
+	Count

POLICE	Lexical Item
police	orthographic form
-	Count

WATER	Lexical Item
water	orthographic form
-	Count

 

Expanded Lexical Entry: phonological form [Plural]

BOOK	lexical item
book	orthographic form
/bËk/	phonological form
+	Count
	Plural

POLICE	lexical item
police	orthographic form
/p-lîs/	phonological form
-	Count
+	Plural

WATER	Lexical Item
water	orthographic form
/wátr/	phonological form
-	Count
-	Plural

• Quantifiers

ONE

TWO, THREE, ... INFINITY

Inherent feature: Number

ONE = [-Plural]

TWO = [+Plural]

Object

[THING], [CONTAINER], [RULER], [RELATION], [PART OF]

Logical Structure

• Category assignment

Each form to be assigned a category

The category is given in lexical item:

BOOK	lexical item
book	orthographic form
/bËk/	phonological form
N	category
+	Count
	Plural

The new slot is category, and here it is N. Therefore, in the above tree structure, N is selected and assigned to [THING].

• Feature Agreement

Nouns agree with quantifiers

Initial structure with features added:

 

Categories

Lexical Entry--one more slot:

Arguments assigned and the theta roles assigned to them:

 

CUP	lexical item
cup	orthorgraphic form
/k-p/	phonological form
<theme>	arguments and associate theta roles
[Concrete]	selectional restriction
[CONTAINER]	Semantic Feature (major)

Government

C-command

Restricted to single case

governor

governee

No agreement (non-matching of features)

Determiners and 'a', 'one', and [null].

• the is [+Def]
• 'a' is a formal quatifier that must agree with the determiner in definiteness: [a book]
• Same holds for 'one'.: one book.
• 'one' is emphat,a' is not.
• The singular quantifier is [NULL] in 'the book.
• All of these are formally ONE.
• lexical entry for 'a', 'one, andbase form

Base form for ONE:

ONE	lexical item
<theme?>	argumentsnd associatedheta roles
+	Count
-	Plural
-	Definite
"1"	semantic form

The base for ONE is linked to lexical items which have the orthographic and phonological information:

lexical etnry for 'a'

ONE	lexical item
a	orthographic form
/ / (schwa)	phonological form
<theme?>	argumentsnd associatedheta roles
+	Count
-	Plural
-	Definite

orthogahic form for '[NULL]" = 1:

ONE	lexical item
[NULL]/ [+Def], [-Emph] one / [-Def],. [+Emph] a / [Def], [-Emph]	orthographic form
/ [NULL]/	phonological form
<theme?>	argumentsnd associatedheta roles
+	Count
-	Plural
+	Definite
	category

Two more feature slots: selectional restrions, semantic features.

CUP	lexical item
cup	orthorgraphic form
/k-p/	phonological form
<theme>	arguments and associate theta roles
+	count
	number
[Concrete]	selectional restriction
[CONTAINER]	Semantic Feature (major)

• Phonological Form

The phonological form is spelled out late

Certain processes must apply.

These will be covered in next section.

• Irregular forms

FOOT expands into two lexical forms (words): foot, feet.

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