Adnominal Modifiers Research Articles

Determiner spreading in Rukiga

AbstractDeterminer spreading, the phenomenon whereby adnominal modifiers carry an ‘additional’ determiner, has been studied extensively for a variety of languages, most notably Greek, Semitic, and Scandinavian languages. Interestingly, the same phenomenon occurs in the Bantu language Rukiga. We show how the Rukiga augment is parallel to the Greek determiner in the context of modification, and how it triggers a restrictive reading when present on a larger class of modifiers than familiar so far: relative clauses, adjectives, possessives, and certain quantifiers. Considering its morphosyntactic and interpretational properties, we propose that the variation in the presence versus absence of the augment on modifiers is due to different underlying structures, applying an analysis of determiner spreading in terms of a reduced relative clause structure.

A counterfactual analysis of adnominal modifiers

In this article, I shall argue for a counterfactual analysis of the semantics of some ad-nominal modifiers. This analysis formalizes the intuition that adnominal modifiers are always restrictive in some sense. Technically, the proposal is formalized with an opera-tor that applies to two intensional entities of type <s,et> and returns as the value the same type of semantic entity (type: <s,et>). In terms of how the rule works, it resem-bles Predicate Modification since it requires a special rule. However, it does not inter-sect the two sets in question. Rather, the rule yields a set of entities that are not neces-sarily a subset of the entities specified by the common noun in the actual world. I call this semantic procedure Restrictive Modification (RM). Essential reasoning is given as follows: the property of being x that has the modifier property and if in all closest worlds w in which x had a crucial property that all CN entities have, then x would have the CN property in w. For example, in the case of stone lion, it denotes the prop-erty of being x made of stone such that if x were to possess a crucial property that a re-al lion has (say, the property of being alive with flesh and blood), then x would be a real lion. This reasoning applies to a variety of adjective types. Some problematic ex-amples such as house key and ice water remain, and they are a reserved for a future study.

A typology of northwestern Bantu gender systems

AbstractNorthwestern Bantu is the most linguistically diverse area of the Bantu-speaking world. Several unusual grammatical gender systems are reported for this area, but there has been a lack of comprehensive comparative studies. This article is a typological investigation of northwestern Bantu gender systems based on a sample of 179 languages. We study the distribution of various patterns of animacy-based agreement in the languages of the sample and in relationship with the Agreement Hierarchy. We find that animacy-based agreement is widespread in northwestern Bantu. If restricted to animate nouns, it tends to coexist in stable variation with syntactic agreement. When generalized to both animate and inanimate nouns, animacy-based agreement appears to contribute to the erosion of gender marking. In line with the prediction of the Agreement Hierarchy, we find that animacy-based agreement is prevalent with verbs and pronouns. Within the noun phrase, it spreads in ways that are suggestive of a hierarchy of syntactic integration between nouns and adnominal modifiers, which had gone unnoticed in the existing literature. These results have important implications for current models of Bantu gender systems and shed new light on animacy effects in the diachrony of gender more generally.

The AMAR mechanism: nominal expressions in the Bantu languages are shaped by apposition and reintegration

Abstract Nominal expressions in the Bantu languages have extraordinary typological characteristics. Their word order patterns are extremely diverse and some of the attested patterns are crosslinguistically very rare, or even unique. The same diversity can be found in the number of agreement marker paradigms. Equally remarkable are the prosodic idiosyncrasies found at the level of nominal expressions, especially the existence of prosodic boundaries associated with certain types of adnominal modifiers. Although logically unrelated, I argue that these typological characteristics can be accounted for by a single diachronic scenario here called the AMAR mechanism: a double tendency in the Bantu languages for the emergence of construals in which a nominalized modifier is in apposition to the phrase that contains its semantic head and for such appositional construals to be gradually reintegrated into a single nominal constituent. This paper aims to summarize some of the more remarkable typological characteristics of nominal expressions in the Bantu languages and to lay out the AMAR mechanism as a hypothetical diachronic explanation for many of them.

Plural marking on noun-associated forms

Abstract Number systems can be morphosemantic or morphosyntactic, based on whether number marking is restricted to nouns or also extends to noun-associated forms, such as adnominal modifiers, predicates, and pronouns. While it is well-known that asymmetries in the distribution of plural marking on nouns can be due to lexico-semantic properties such as animacy and/or inherent number, the question of whether these properties also affect patterns of plural agreement has been less broadly investigated. This paper examines the distribution of plural agreement in 24 Cushitic (Afro-Asiatic) languages. The number systems of the languages of the sample are classified into three types, ranging from radically morphosemantic (Type 1) to radically morphosyntactic (Type 2). A subset of languages displays a combination of morphosemantic and morphosyntactic strategies, and thus qualifies as a mixed type (Type 3). In these languages, the distribution of plural agreement is largely lexically-specified: nouns denoting groups, masses, and collections are more likely to trigger plural agreement than other types of nouns. These results thus show that, similarly to the nominal domain, the lexical semantics of nouns may also affect plural marking on noun-associated forms. Furthermore, in Cushitic, radically morphosemantic and radically morphosyntactic number systems appear to be diachronically connected to each other, with the latter seemingly evolving from the former, as testified by ongoing variation and change in some of the sampled languages. The relevance of these findings for understanding the typology and evolution of number systems is discussed.

Multiple adnominal modification in Dinka

In Dinka, a Western Nilotic language, most adnominal modifiers follow the head noun. Before most of these modifiers, the head noun is in one of two construct states. One construct state, CS1, occurs before, among others, demonstratives, nominal possessors and relative clauses as CS1-modifiers. The other construct state, CS2, which is morphologically more complex, occurs before, among others, possessive pronouns, a few numerals and a diminutivizer as CS2-modifiers. When a construct-state triggering modifier is added to a CS2-modifier, the latter itself gets construct state marking, and the head noun changes from CS2 to CS1. Some CS1-modifiers also get construct state marking when followed by a construct-state triggering modifier. Multiple adnominal modification in Dinka may thus result in a chain of construct states, which is similar to what is found in Iranian languages with so-called ezafe marking.

Coercion by modification — The adaptive capacities of event-sensitive adnominal modifiers

This paper is about coercive meaning adaptions as triggered by modifiers. It pursues two objectives. First, we argue that coercion by modification is rooted in the linguistic system. More specifically, given a pending type-conflict between a modifier and its target, fine-grained lexical typing information is shown to both license and constrain adaptive options. Notably, such a dynamic lexical semantics integrates conceptual knowledge resources into rigid compositional mechanisms without giving up their principled distinction. Second, we reconcile coercion by modification with the standard conception of modification as a type-preserving operation. However, we also argue that the coercion facts cannot be handled within rule-based approaches to modification. The merits of the proposed dynamic approach to lexical semantics are exemplified by a detailed investigation of the subtly differing coercive potentials of event-sensitive adjectives such as schnell ‘quick’, flink ‘nimble’, and rasch ‘rapid’ in German. It is spelled out in terms of Asher’s (2011) Type Composition Logic. EARLY ACCESS

A comparison study of ozzei, ooi, and takusan as adnominal modifiers

A comparison study of ozzei, ooi, and takusan as adnominal modifiers

Relative tense in relative clauses

Abstract Japanese adnominal modifiers with no overt tense markings can produce “simultaneous readings” under matrix predicates in the past tense. This article argues for the position that these adnominal phrases are not necessarily tenseless and that they can be gapped relative clauses that contain a phonetically empty present tense morpheme. The findings of this article reinforce the view presented in Ogihara (1996) and others that Japanese tense morphemes (both present and past) are instances of relative tense in the sense of Comrie (1985) and that this behavior is visible in both verb complements and adnominal modifier positions. In addition, the contention of this article indirectly refutes an alternative position, which claims the Japanese adnominal modifiers in question are tenseless phrases and do not involve gapped relative clauses (Kusumoto, 1999). I also offer a tentative and informal account of the semantic properties of the Japanese adnominal modifiers in question at the end of the article, which involve covert attitudes on the part of a salient individual who may or may not be mentioned in the sentence.

The syntax of adjectives: A comparative study (review)

Reviewed by: The syntax of adjectives: A comparative study Melita Stavrou The syntax of adjectives: A comparative study. By Guglielmo Cinque. (Linguistic inquiry monographs 57.) Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010. Pp. viii, 202. ISBN 9780262514262. $35. In the first boom of transformational theory in the 1960s, adjectives as adnominal modifiers featured in a set of transformational rules that created them out of relative clauses. The derivation of adnominal1 adjectives proceeded along the following three transformational steps (see Alexiadou et al. 2007 for extensive discussion and references): (i) the adjective is generated as the predicate within a relative clause, (ii) the relative clause is 'reduced' by whiz-deletion, and (iii) predicate fronting places the adjectival predicate to the left of the noun (see 1). The equivalence in 1 was one argument in favor of the claim that the two sides of the arrow in 1 are related derivationally. 1. The problem (which) is [AP interesting] ↔ the interesting problem [End Page 419] Such things happened in the old days of linguistic innocence. But 1 entailed certain notorious complications (Bolinger (1967) was perhaps the first linguist to discuss such complications): (i) adjectives such as former, present, and alleged, as well as denominal classifying adjectives like nuclear, medical, and electrical, resist predicative use (*the murderer was alleged), and (ii) some adjectives can appear in either a prenominal or a postnominal position but with a different interpretation in each position. 2. a. The present president voted against the proposal, the former president approved. (the current president, temporal reading) b. The students present voted against the proposal. (those attending...) The transformational operation could not capture such interpretive asymmetries, because transformations were not supposed to alter meaning. Things began to change in the 1970s following Chomsky's pioneering article 'Remarks on nominalization' (1970), which was expanded in Jackendoff's (1977) X' theory. The focus of inquiry being transferred to the phrase structure component, transformations were considerably reduced. Many operations that were previously handled transformationally were now brought back to the 'base'. Thus, adnominal adjectives were base-generated (at the N. level). But even then, adjectives and adjective-containing noun phrases were not put under scrutiny. Also, issues of crosslinguistic differences/asymmetries were not yet addressed. With the advent of the so-called DP hypothesis, many functional categories emerged and found their proper place in the syntax, both nominal and clausal. In the golden age of generative grammar, expressed in what became known as the theory of government and binding, attention was paid to the detailed study of adjectives both from a syntactic and semantic point of view and from a typological perspective. Since the early 1990s, the name that came to be near synonymous to nominal syntax within the Chomskyan tradition, which later came to be known as the cartographic approach, was that of Guglielmo Cinque. Cinque was one of the first generative linguists to advance a theory of adjective distribution and interpretation within a broader theory of nominal architecture, in which N-movement played an important role. Simplifying greatly, the raising of the noun past one or perhaps more adjectives accounted for the fact that those adjectives that were passed by the noun surfaced following it. This operation could account for pre- and postnominal adjectives within a particular language as well as across languages. That was the mainstream hypothesis within the DP theory until the early 2000s. With the current book under review (see also Cinque 2005a,b) C revisits his original assumptions about N-movement, primarily as regards adjective placement and ordering. On the basis of a detailed comparison between English (Germanic) and Italian (Romance), he abandons his original idea about N-movement in favor of phrasal (NP) movement. The syntax of adjectives comprises an introduction, seven chapters, a separate conclusion, an appendix with data from six languages, notes, references, a subject index, and a name index. In the introduction and in Ch. 1, the reader gets an overview of the problems of the N-movement analysis advanced by the author in the 1990s, which further constitutes the focus of Ch. 2. First, APs in prenominal position in the Romance group and APs in the Germanic group (when possible) are contrasted via a number...

Descriptive and discourse-referential modifiers in a layered model of the noun phrase

This article argues that adnominal modifiers in a layered model of the noun phrase can be divided into two major subcategories: descriptive modifiers and discourse-referential modifiers. Whereas descriptive modifiers can be subdivided into classifying, qualifying, quantifying and localizing modifiers (Section 2), discourse-referential modifiers in the noun phrase are concerned with the status of entities as referents in the world of discourse (Section 3). I will pay particular attention to three issues: (i) formal reflections of the layered, semantic structure of the noun phrase (Section 4), (ii) the special relationship between localizing and discourse-referential modifiers (Section 5), and (iii) semantic and morphosyntactic parallels between modifier categories in the noun phrase and the clause (Section 6). In addition this sample-based typological study shows (contra Hawkins's Universal 20') that there are languages with the adjective before and the demonstrative or numeral after the head noun. These word order patterns provide additional support for the layered model of the noun phrase defended here in that it can now be shown for the first time that all patterns that iconically reflect the layered structure of the simple noun phrase are actually attested in the languages of the world.

Between nouns and adjectives: A constructional view

Tungus proprietives, regularly derived from nouns by affixation, demonstrate a mixed behaviour. As adnominal modifiers, they have the full syntactic and morphological distribution of an adjective. Yet, the base noun retains some nominal properties: it can head its own syntactic phrase, control agreement on its modifier, trigger various anaphoric processes, pluralize, and take derivational affixes. These forms present a problem for the traditional view of syntactic categories, as they have the morphosyntactic properties of more than one part of speech. They are also important for the syntax/morphology interface, because the word structure and the phrase structure do not match: although the base noun selects modifiers as if it were an independent phrasal head, it is not an independent word in morphology. The paper shows that syntactic affixation analyses cannot adequately capture the Tungus data. Instead, I propose a constructional analysis based on the idea that relationships among classes of words are expressed in the lexicon by means of cross-cutting hierarchical types, where more specific types inherit information from more general types. The idiosyncratic behaviour of proprietives is lexically specified by the cross-classification of head values. Categorial information is inherited from adjectives and determines the external distribution of the phrase. At the same time, proprietives inherit the underlying noun's semantics (referentiality) and selectional properties. This analysis raises further questions about the nature of the traditional syntactic labels such as nouns or adjectives, namely, whether we are dealing with a new category type in each case of mixed categories.