SYNTAX
seminar
Handout 2
CATEGORIES OF WORDS
Noun vs. verb: how to distinguish them? The defining character of environment (= distribution):
(8)
a. the weathers in Europe and Australasia differ greatly
b. heavy rain weathers concrete
Notional vs. grammatical words = thematic/lexical (-F) vs. functional (+F)
words/categories/classes Classification by means of binary features – 3 features define 8 classes
(plus 4 more by underspecification for the cases not covered, see BESE).
[-N, +V]
[-F, -N, +V] = V – Verb
[+N, -V]
[-F, +N, -V] = N – Noun
[+N, +V]
[-F, +N, +V] = A –
Adjective/Adverb
[-F, -N, -V] = P – Preposition
[-N, -V]
[+F, -N, +V] = Infl –
Auxiliary, Inflection
[+F, +N, -V] = Det –
Determiner, Article
[+F, +N, +V] = Deg – Degree
Adverb
[+F, -N, -V] = Comp –
Complementiser
NOMINAL EXPRESSIONS AS DPs
Newson, Ch. 4: The DP hypothesis
functional and lexical categories
Language acquisition: lexical categories (e.g. noun) appear first, functional categories (e.g.
determiner) are acquired later
It is the determiner that selects the nominal expression, and not vice versa.
(1)
a
in the corner, there sat a man
b
* in the corner, there sat the man
Newson: “An indefinite phrase can appear in the object position of [certain] verbs in the there
construction, whereas a definite phrase cannot. The observation that the definiteness of these
phrases is determined by the determiner is one reason to consider the determiner the head:
heads determine the nature of their phrases. If the determiner determines the definiteness of a
nominal phrase, then we can conclude that the noun does not. Indeed in both the examples in
(1), the same noun is used and this seems to make no difference to the definiteness of the
entire phrase. Thus we might assume that definiteness is a property of determiners and not of
nouns.”
(2)
a
on Saturday there arrived some men
b
* on Saturday there arrived the men
c
on Saturday there arrived men
d
* on Saturday there arrived John
Nominals modified by an overt determiner are DPs, bare nominals are DPs headed by a null
determiner (the null generic/existential determiner has much the same quantificational, person
and complement-selection properties as a typical overt determiner such as enough: I've read
enough poetry/poems/*poem) and pronouns are determiners often used without a complement
(!we syntacticians)
ho2, p2
Substitution test: this student, Peter, he, men  are all of them DPs?
definite empty determiner: selects proper nouns
indefinite empty determiner: selects plural nouns
1. determiners with no complement: he (but: you students)
2. determiners with obligatory complement: the
3. determiners with optional complement: this
selectional restrictions on number
Spec,DP: phrasal element preceding the head: possessor?
*John’s the book - possessor and determiner compete for the same position?
’s: Case marker?
 no case marking on lexical DPs in English apart from this
 attached to the last element of DP: the man that you invited’s friend
(egy történetet a sárkányokról, *egy történet a sárkányokrólt)
’s: a head constituent attached to a phrase, only contracted form (as opposed to will)