Keywords - L322 S03

Intermediate Syntax

Week 3: The Logical Structure of the Noun Phrase--Part 2.

• Phonological Form

• The phonological form is spelled out late
• All syntactic and morphological processes must apply first.
• These will be covered in next section.

• Irregular forms

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

• FOOT is a set of lexical features assigned to the lexical entry for foot.
• FOOT+[-Pl] is spelled out as foot.
• FOOT+[+Pl] is spelled out as feet

• The default for nouns (and verbs) is that the lexical form splits into a stem and an inflectional suffix
  • This might be considered a lexical process called Spell-out
  • The default applies to BOOK, for example:

(1)

• Singular nouns do not split into a stem plus a derivational suffix, with the possible exception of a few Latinate nouns: radi+us, radi+i. However, it is better to analyze these such that the suffix "us" is analyzed as a stem extender that occur when there is no over inflectional ending. It is deleted before all phonetic suffixes (when irregular). Sometimes, the stem becomes regular when "us" fails to drop in the plural: Hippopotamus, Hippopotami --> Hippopotamus, Hippopotamuses.
• Irregular nouns like foot, feet do not split into a stem plus a morpheme.
  • Because the feature [±Plural] may be either [-Plural] or [+Plural], the lexical entry FOOT has two lexical items: foot, feet.

• Definiteness

• Operator

• Discourse item
• Real World Knowledge (the sun, the dog)
• [DEFINITE] (or [DEF])
• Demonstratives

• [+Dem]
• [+Close]

• Category: D (Det, Determiner)

• Nouns as arguments of number

• Number: [±Pl]
• Number = [+Bound, +Weak]
• [+Pl] morphemic form:

• default = '-s'.
• rare = '-en'.
• merge: mice, teeth, lice, geese, feet.
• unmarked merge: deer, antelope, sheep, elk
• plural only: cattle, police; scissors, pants, shears, tights, trousers, britches

• Qu < [NP object]>
  • two books

• Definiteness:

• [±Def]
• [+Def]

• [±Dem]

• [±Prox]

• [+Dem] = this
• [-Dem = that

• [-Def]

• What is 'a'?
• (Surprise)
• 'a' is a quantifier marked as [Def].

• English nouns are marked for two operators (for now).
  • definite, quantifier
• [D NULL] is [-Def]

• Count:

• [±Count]
• Lexically derived plural + singular.

• Quant

• Quant --> [±Count]
• [+Count] --> all definite numerals
• [-Count] --> SOME, MANY, MUCH, FEW, A FEW, SEVERAL, LITTLE, A LITTLE.
• allomorphs = a/an, one, NULL

ONE	Spell Out	lexical features
Qu		category
+		Ct
--		Pl
		Def
+	one	[+Emph]
--	[NULL]	[-Emph],  if first phonetic word in NP.
--	a	-Emph, /___[-Voc]
--	an	-Emph, /___[+Voc]

TWO	spell out	lexical features
Qu		category
+		Count
--		Plural
+		Quantified
+		+FV (Fixed Value)
	[NULL]	if UQ = both, & [-Em,ph]
	two

• and so forth.
• Qu and D are both operators.
  • Quantification is implicit in all English noun phrases
    • Yet to be discussed are the non-countable quantifiers (many, few, etc.)
    • No countable noun can be undesignated for the feature of quantification.
      • In Hungarian and Chinese, nouns can be unmodified for quantification.
  • Definiteness is implicit in all English noun phrases.
    • Every NP is either definite or indefinite
    • No NP can be left unmodified for the feature of definiteness.
    • Generics are special problem, but are probably indefinite as they do not point to the existence of a specific object.
• The third operator for nouns: Universal Quantifiers
  • There are seven known ones:
  • all, both, each, every, any, no, = [+UQ], NULL, = [-UQ].
    • ALL = [+UQ, -Ct_Inh, -Pl_Inh, +FV,
    • BOTH = [+UQ, +Ct_Inh, +CT, +Pl_Inh,+Pl, +Dual, +FV,
    • EVERY = [+UQ, +Ct_Inh, +Ct -Pl_Inh, +FV,
    • EACH = [+UQ, +Ct_Inh, +Ct, -Pl_Inh, +FV,
    • ANY = [+UQ, -Ct_Inh, -Pl_Inh, +FV,
    • NO = [+UQ, -Ct_Inh, -Pl_Inh, +FV,
    • NULL =[-UQ,].
  • We won't be concerned with the meaning of these, just the relevant syntactic features.
  • both:
    • both books
    • both two books
    • *both rice
    • *both book
    • *both three books
    • both = +Ct_Inh, +Ct; +Pl_Inh, +Pl; +Dual_Inh, +Dual
    • *both several books.
  • all:
    • all three books
    • *all two books
    • all books
    • *all book
    • all rice
    • *all rices
    • all = [-Pl_Inh, -Ct_Inh, +Dual_Inh, -Dual, -Defm +FV]
    • *all several books.
  • each:
    • each book
    • *each books
    • *each rice
    • each two books (= each set of two books)
    • each = [+Ct_Inh, +Ct; -Pl_Inh, Pl, -Def].
    • ?*each several books
  • every
    • every book
    • *every books
    • *every rice
    • every two books (= every set of two books)
    • every = [+Ct_Inh, +Ct; -Pl_Inh, Pl, -Def].
    • *?every several books
  • any
    • any book = any one book
    • any books [Q -Qf]
    • any rice
    • any two books (= any set of two books)
    • any =[-Ct_Inh, -Pl_Inh, -Def].
    • ?*any several books
  • no
    • no book = no one book, no is UQ, one = Q.
    • no books = UQ, Q=NULL=, [-:Pl_Inh, -Ct_Inh]
    • no three books
    • no rice
    • ?*no several books.
• [±UQ] refers to the semantic feature that distinguishes UQs from non-UQs. It is not clear at this time what this is.
  • It haev something to do with grouping, though is not certain.
• [+FV] is true for all UQs, since none of them can occur with Quantiers that are not marked for fixed value.
• The UQ "no" occurs in phrases such as:
  • no book, no five books, *no several books.
• The argument structure for the NP (as far as we are concerned) is the following:
  • UQ < D < Q < N >>
• Note: The count/plural algorthm applies to universal quantifiers as well:
  • any rice [-Pl]
  • any books = ANY NULL BOOK [+Pl]
  • any book = ANY ONE BOOK [-Pl]
• There are other operators, but we probably won't find the time to cover them. One of them is negation.