Scribd
Upload
32 views4 pages

Class 6

Uploaded by

zelalpn
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
32 views4 pages

Class 6

Uploaded by

zelalpn
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

Class 6

I. DP versus NP: A piece of evidence

Recall our X-bar schema:

1. XP

ZP X’

X0 YP

According to this schema, within a certain phrase (XP), all material (ZP, YP) except the head
(X0) must be phrasal.

A determiner does not seem to be a phrase, and therefore, generating it as a specifier of an NP


got us into a conceptual trouble. Consequently, we rejected this possibility, represented in (2a) in
favor of a theoretically more acceptable one in (2b). This structure was first proposed by Abney
(1987).

2. a. *NP b. DP

D0 N’ ... D’

N0 ... D0 NP

Let us now look at some empirical evidence in favor of (2b).

Consider the following genitive phrases:

3. a. Bob’s hat
b. Every worker’s hat
c. The woman in a blue coat’s hat

Looking only at (3a), we might think that –’s is a genitive suffix that is attached to the head noun
Bob in the lexicon, similarly to the plural suffix –s in the examples below:

4. a. Cat–s were running.


b. There were many apple–s on the table.
c. People were worried about the rat–s.

However, the –’s in (3b) and (3c) cannot be explained in the same way. In these examples, the ‘s
clearly attaches to something bigger than a head noun – it attaches to the whole phrases: every
worker and the woman in a blue coat.

1
Class 6

Since the lexicon does not contain phrases (except perhaps idioms), –‘s cannot be a proper
suffix.

If it is not a suffix, what is it? Suppose that it is an instance of D0.

This would mean that (3a) has the structure in (5). The DP, Bob’s hat is headed by the D0 –’s, the
NP, hat is its complement, while the DP Bob is its specifier.

5. DP

DP D’

Bob D0 NP
‘s
hat

Let’s draw trees for the genitive phrases in (3b) and (3c).

6. Every worker’s hat

7. The woman in a blue coat’s hat

2
Class 6

A NOTE ON NPs and DPs

We know that some nouns (countable singular nouns) obligatorily appear with a determiner. This
is shown by the contrast in (8) below.

8. a. A/the/some/every girl told me a secret.


b. *Girl told me a secret.

This shows that at least some NPs, like the NP girl, must be embedded under DPs (there must be
a DP phrase above the NP phrase).

Plural and mass nouns may appear with or without determiners (they cannot take the indefinite
article a, but they can take some other determiners).

9. a. Students liked snow.


b. The/some students liked snow.

10. a. Salt is bad for your health.


b. Give me the/some salt, please.

Thus, the NPs headed by plural or mass nouns may be embedded under DPs.
Some nouns, such as proper nouns, cannot appear with a determiner.

11. a. Sue told me a secret.


b. *The Sue told me a secret.

However, this is not true cross-linguistically. In modern Greek, for example, proper names
usually take determiners.

12. I maria aghapai ton ilia. Modern Greek


The Maria loves the Ilia
‘Maria loves Ilia.’

How can we unite all the possible patterns observed in (8) through (12)? The simplest solution
seems to be to claim that all NPs are embedded under DPs, but in some cases, the D0 is null.

Thus, even for the NP Bob we should project both the NP and the DP, with the D0 heading the
DP being null, as in (13) below. (In the same way, we need to project the TP even when the T0
itself is null, and the CP even when the C0 is null.)

3
Class 6

13. DP

D0 NP

N’

N0
Bob

Thus, the full tree for the genitive phrase in (5) is given below.

14. DP

DP D’

D0 NP D0 NP
 ‘s
N’ N’

N0 N0
Bob hat

Let us now look at the following data.

15. a. Students’ courage


b. *Students’ the courage

16. a. The students’ courage


b. *The students’ the courage

Can our hypothesis that the genitive ending –’s is an instance of D0 explain why the phrases in
(15b) and (16b) ungrammatical? How?

References:

Abney, S. 1987. The English Noun Phrase in its Sentential Aspect. Doctoral dissertation, MIT.
Chomsky, N. 1965. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

You might also like