This volume is the first dedicated to the comprehensive, in-depth analysis of constructions with nouns like 'type' and 'sort'. It focuses on type noun constructions in Romance, Germanic and Slavic ...languages, integrating the different descriptive traditions that had been developed for each language family. As a result, a greater variety of type noun constructions is revealed than in the hitherto more fragmented literature. But attention is also drawn to the cross-linguistic similarity of the new pragmatic meanings, such as ad hoc and approximative categorization, hedging, focus and filler uses, and the new grammatical functions in NPs (e.g. phoric uses), clauses (e.g. adverbial uses) and complex sentences (e.g. quotatives). The volume offers survey chapters of type noun constructions in each language family as well as contributions focusing on specific aspects in one or two languages, such as their grammar, semantics and pragmatics, diachronic development, discursive and sociolinguistic variety. These complementary methodologies elucidate the unique cross-linguistic field of type noun constructions both descriptively and theoretically. Hence, this volume can also serve as a model for similar surveys in other functional domains.
The future of English linguistics as envisaged by the editors of Topics in English Linguistics lies in empirical studies which integrate work in English linguistics into general and theoretical ...linguistics on the one hand, and comparative linguistics on the other. The TiEL series features volumes that present interesting new data and analyses, and above all fresh approaches that contribute to the overall aim of the series, which is to further outstanding research in English linguistics.
Surveying noun phrases and their syntax, the book offers a theoretically oriented, comparative studyin which theyexamine basic aspects of noun projection. The discussion includes the following ...topics: The DP hypothesis, the status of D in languages without determiners, demonstratives, the role of classifiers, the morphosyntactic features/projections of nouns, head and phrasal movement in the noun phrase, adjectival modification, possessors, argument structure of nouns, the partitive construction and the N-of-an-N construction. Key features Features basic knowledge for Students of Syntax State-of-the-Art description of one of the most debated topics in Theoretical Linguistics Famous authors
The study focuses on the interaction between length of exposure and instruction in the L2 English acquisition process of L1 Spanish school children. Two target structures involving noun ...premodification are targeted: noun–noun (NN) compounds and adjective–noun (AN) strings. Four groups of participants have been studied for 3 years: a group that has been exposed to a specifically designed teaching program targeting NN compounds and a group that has received the regular English instruction program which does not address this structure as part of the curriculum. Two age subgroups appear in each case. The longitudinal judgment data elicited show that performance improves in the cooperation between length of exposure and the exposure to the NN instruction program. Furthermore, it is this last issue that actually takes the lead in that the NN instruction program directly impacts on not only NN compounds but also AN strings. This points to instruction being determinant in the L2 learning process; that is, a consciously and carefully directed instruction is proven to be more effective than length of exposure itself. This study on longitudinal experimental data contributes to shed light on the factors involved in instructed L2 acquisition.
Recent scholarship has confirmed earlier observations that nominalization plays a crucial role in the formation of complex constructions in the world's languages. Grammatical nominalizations are one ...of the most salient and widespread features of languages of the Americas, yet they have not been approached as foundational grammatical structures for constructions such as relative clauses and complement clauses. This is due to an imbalance in past scholarship, which has tended to focus on these constructions at the expense of the nominalization structures underlying them. The papers in this collection treat grammatical nominalizations in their own right, and as a starting point for the investigation of their uses in complex grammatical structures. A representative sample of Amerindian languages, with focus on South America, examines properties of grammatical nominalizations such as their multiple functions, their internal and external syntax, and their diachronic development. Among the far-reaching theoretical conclusions reached by the studies in this volume is that the various types of relative clauses recognized in the typological literature are actually no more than epiphenomena arising from the different uses of grammatical nominalizations.
English has an interesting variety of noun phrases, which differ greatly in structure. Examples are 'binominal' (two-noun) phrases ('a beast of a party'); possessive constructions ('the author's ...opinion'); and discontinuous noun phrases ('the review came out yesterday of his book'). How are these different noun phrases structured? How do we produce and understand them? These questions are central to this study, which explores the interaction between the form of noun phrases, their meaning, and their use. It shows how, despite the need in linguistic analysis for strict categories, many linguistic constructions in fact defy straightforward classification - and concludes that in order to fully explain the internal structure of utterances, we must first consider the communicative, pragmatic and cognitive factors that come into play. Drawing on a range of authentic examples, this book sheds light not only on the noun phrase itself but also the nature of linguistic classification.
Voor aankomende neerlandici intra en extra muros bij uitgeverij Amsterdam University Press. Het elfde hoofdstuk besteedt aandacht aan de structuur van de zin, met nominale constituenten (NP), ...adjectivale constituenten (AP), prepositionele constituent (PP) en woordvolgorde. Geraadpleegd op 21 december 2021 op https://neerlandistiek.nl/2013/11/die-niederlandische-sprache-ist-naturlich-keine-form-des-turkischen/
This article investigates the nature and behavior of independent, bound and deverbal nouns at various levels of linguistic organization in Harakmbut (isolate, Peru), and assesses the explanatory ...potential of the alienability contrast for the data observed. While the distinction between bound and independent nouns is to a great extent motivated by the conceptual distinction between inalienably and alienably possessed items, the behavior of bound and independent nouns in adnominal possession is not. Whereas independent (and deverbal) nouns use a genitive-marked two-word construction, bound nouns can use the same one, when keeping their noun prefix, or they can use a genitive-marked one-word construction, in which they drop their prefix. It is thus argued that there is no alienability split in adnominal possession, that is, there is no coding split according to which bound nouns behave fully differently from independent nouns. This is supported by the finding that bound nouns (unlike independent and deverbal ones) also show the same choice between a two-word and a one-word coding strategy in non-possessive adnominal modification. In noun-noun compounding, the data merely reveal different preferences of bound and independent nouns for the N1 versus N2 position; here deverbal nouns behave identically to bound nouns in dropping their prefix in N2. In noun incorporation, finally, the relevance of the alienability contrast is similar to that for the two-way noun class system. Inalienable semantics (and morphological boundness) could be argued to determine the incorporability of nouns, but there are also exceptions.
This series consists of collected volumes and monographs about specific issues dealing with interfaces among the subcomponents of linguistic structure: phonology-morphology, phonology-syntax, ...syntax-semantics, syntax-morphology, and syntax-lexicon. Recent linguistic research has recognized that the subcomponents of grammar interact in non-trivial ways. What is currently under debate is the actual range of such interactions and their most appropriate representation in grammar, and this is precisely the focus of this series. Specifically, it provides a general overview of various topics by examining them through the interaction of grammatical components. The books function as a state-of- the-art report of research.
A systematic evaluation of syntactic behavior of nouns that take as their possessor the topic of the possessive topic constructions in Mandarin Chinese calls for an understanding of the syntactic and ...semantic nature of relational nouns (RNs) and non-RNs. This evaluation leads to four empirical generalizations that divide NP possessees into four subtypes, some important differences between which are understudied in the literature. These generalizations are then explained with differences in the lexical syntactic and semantic properties of the four NP subtypes, namely, non-RNs, kinship type nouns, body-part type nouns, and whole-part nouns: whether the nouns bear a local or long-distance syntactic reflexive argument, or a pronominal argument, or no argument at all, is the determining factor of their distinctive syntactic behavior in the possessive topic construction. This study sheds light on long-standing problems concerning the nature of empty categories in connection with the topic in possessive topic constructions. Critical aspects of the nouns’ syntactic behavior are arguably orthogonal to a movement or base-generation approach to topicalization in Mandarin Chinese. Instead, this article proposes that the semantic or syntactic arguments of the nominal possessees relate to the topic via some general mechanisms other than movement or base-generation: reflexive and pronominal reference resolution. This study thus offers us a novel viewpoint on the syntax and semantics of nouns as well as their typology in the context of possession and inalienability.
