Head Noun Research Articles

On the Syntactic Category of kkway ‘quite’ in Korean

This paper argues that the degree modifier kkway ‘quite’ in Korean is used as an adjective inside NPs although it is normally used as a degree adverb inside the predicate of a sentence. Several pieces of evidence for the adjectival status of kkway ‘quite’ are provided in this paper: i) kkway ‘quite’ inside NPs cannot have the topic marker -(n)un like other adjectives, ii) kkway ‘quite’ must appear in the prenominal position when it modifies a head noun, iii) kkway ‘quite’ restricts the meaning of the head noun, iv) kkway ‘quite’ can be modified by a degree adverb, and v) kkway ‘quite’ can be stacked with other typical adjectives within NPs. I further show with similar evidence that other degree modifiers – sangdanghi ‘considerable’ and maywu ‘very’ – can be also used as an adjective inside NPs. Finally, some nominal expressions with kkway ‘quite’ are analyzed in the Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (Pollard & Sag, 1994; Sag, Wasow, & Bender, 2003).

Korean EFL Learners’ Use of English Direct Object RCs in Written Discourse

English relative clauses (RCs) are one of the complex English structures because they include the filler-gap dependency. Because of the structural and linear distance, English direct object RCs are considered much more difficult to produce and comprehend than subject RCs. Previous works have shown that important factors such as animacy of the head nouns can decrease processing difficulty of direct object RCs. The present study analyzes fifty Korean EFL high school students’ production of RCs in argumentative essays. The results show that a total of 100 natural RCs were found in the essays. The findings of the present work indicate that (1) the learners made more subject RCs than direct object RCs; (2) all direct object RCs used by high school learners had an inanimate head nouns; and (3) the subject of direct object RCs include pronouns. Therefore, the results manifest that the learners used particular processing strategies for producing direct object RCs, and these lend support to previous findings in empirical and theoretical works in SLA.

Processing Chinese relative clauses in context by Italian L3 learners

The present study investigates third language (L3) learners’ processing of Chinese subject and object relative clauses in a supportive context. Using a self-paced reading task, we tested native Italian L3 learners of Mandarin Chinese and native Chinese speakers. The results showed that the L3 learners read significantly more slowly than the native speakers in all the target regions. Also, in the head noun region, they read object relative clauses significantly more slowly compared to subject relative clauses, indicating a preference for the latter. By contrast, for the native speakers, no significant differences were observed between subject and object relative clauses in any of the target regions. The L3 learners’ performance offers support for the Structural Distance Hypothesis over the Dependency Locality Theory, and the contrast between the two populations indicates that context is at play in the processing of relative clauses.

THE PARAMETRIC VARIATIONS OF ENGLISH AND KANURI NOUN PHRASES: A MINIMALIST APPROACH

This paper examines the parametric variations of English and Kanuri noun phrases (NPs) within the theoretical framework of Principles and Parameters (P&P), and the study adopts Chomsky’s (1995) Minimalist Approach (MA). In conducting the research, the researcher uses his native intuition to collect the data for this study. The secondary sources of data involve the use of three competent native speakers to validate the data. The outcome of the study reveals that there are differences and similarities between the two languages which are genetically different –Kanuri Nilo is a Saharan language while English is an Endo European language. The differences are: Kanuri is a head final language while English is head initial language. On the complement phrases, the two languages share dissimilarities –quantifiers and adjectives occur post head in Kanuri while the quantifiers and adjectives occur pre-head in English. Finally, the two languages share similarities in terms of noun plural formation morphologically suffixed to post head nouns and definiteness and agreement features [-Def] [+PL Num].

The exponence of caseless NPs in Moksha

In this paper, I argue that the difference between indefinite- and definite-declension genitives in Moksha (Uralic) is not in the semantic or referential characteristics of the nominals they mark (as the name suggests), but rather in the syntactic size of the nominals. I show that there is no one-to-one correspondence between the definiteness of a noun phrase and its marking. In particular, indefinite-declension genitives can mark non-specific indefinite as well as specific definite noun phrases. At the same time, indefinite-declension genitives are number-neutral, while definite-declension genitives are specified for number. In contrast to indefinite-declension nominals, definite-declension ones also trigger possessive agreement on the head noun. I analyze indefinite-genitives as NPs and definite-genitives as DPs. Based on what is generally known about DPs, I make several predictions regarding the distribution of the genitives; two definite-declension genitives should be incompatible within one enclosing DP, while there should be no such restriction on the co-occurrence of an indefinite-declension genitive with either another indefinite-declension genitive or a definite-declension genitive. These predictions are borne out, and these new findings enrich the discussion of the ban on the co-occurrence of two DPs which are too close in the structure. More generally, my analysis supports the view that nominals of different structural size can coexist within one language.

Anaphor reconstruction in Japanese relative clauses

AbstractThis study conducted two experiments to examine the derivation of the head noun phrase in Japanese relative clauses, with a focus on whether the anaphorsjibun‘self’ andjibun-jishin‘self-self’ within the head noun phrase can be co-referential with the relative clause subject. It aims to settle a long-standing debate among the previous studies concerning the interpretation of the anaphors inside the head noun phrase: while several studies claimed that the co-reference between the anaphorjibun‘self’ and the relative clause subject is prohibited, many other studies argued that such co-reference is possible. In addition, it has been claimed that while co-indexing the anaphorjibunwith the relative clause subject might be marginally acceptable, it would become fully acceptable if we replacejibunwith the morphologically complex anaphorjibun-jishin‘self-self’, which implies that the morphological make-up of an anaphor may affect its ability to be co-indexed with the relative clause subject.The results of two carefully controlled truth value judgment experiments show that neither the simplex anaphorjibunnor the complex anaphorjibun-jishinwithin the head noun phrase of relative clauses can take the relative clause subject as its antecedent, which suggests that the head noun phrase does not reconstruct and therefore lends support to thepro-binding analysis of Japanese relative clauses. Moreover, the findings also suggest that the morphological make-up of an anaphor does not affect its ability to take the relative clause subject as its antecedent, despite the claim that it is more acceptable to co-index the complex anaphorjibun-jishinwith the relative clause subject than the simplex anaphorjibun.

Variability in inflectional forms of attributive-appositive composite lexical units in Polish

This paper examines inflectional markers (signalling number, case and gender) of selected types of NN complexes in Polish, which can be regarded as attributive-appositive (ATAP) lexical units in the cross-linguistic classification of compounds proposed by Scalise & Bisetto (2009) . Polish compounds proper show externalization of inflection and take inflectional markers on their right-hand constituents only. In contrast, Polish juxtapositions are expected to display double inflectional marking (on both their components). However, data from the National Corpus of Polish demonstrate that ATAP juxtapositions containing the lexeme widmo ‘ghost, phantom’ as their right-hand component exhibit variability in their inflectional paradigms. The right-hand (i.e. the modifier) constituent of such juxtapositions either shows number and case agreement with the head noun, or it appears in the default (nom.sg) form. Potential reasons for the instability of inflectional paradigms of such NN juxtapositions are considered.

Constructions with negative prefix at- in The Coptic Language

The present paper handles the compound noun, the negative, using the formative at, which is used for nouns and verbs because many abstract nouns comprise the prefix at- Finally, all the abstract nouns negated by at are appended to them.In Coptic, there are few true adjectives because the old form of the language is rich in adjective-verbs. Generally speaking, the adjective is expressed in Coptic by means of a relative clause or by substantives linked together by the genitival adjective n-. Less frequently, the noun and its qualifying substantive are in direct opposition. This adjective follows its noun in masculine and feminine forms.In this article, an analysis is made of the use of the negative prefix at- in Coptic. The examples of its use are divided into two groups:1) The negative prefix at- with verbs.2) The negative prefix at---- with nouns.The meaning of some frequently occurring verbal and nominal roots modified by at- is explicated and their etymological (Ancient Egyptian and Demotic) predecessors are provided.Syntactically, the compounds with at- are abstract nouns which function predominantly as equivalents of adjectives, as Coptic has only a few adjectives in the strict sense. Consequently, the at-compounds have adjectival syntactic functions: they modify the head noun in the nominal phrase or function as the nominal predicate in nominal sentences. They can also function as nouns, for example as the subject of the sentence. An overview of the syntactic functions of the at-compounds examined is presented in the Conclusions.In the Appendices, alphabetic overviews are provided of respectively the deverbal and denominal compounds with - mentioned in Crum’s Coptic Dictionary. It becomes evident that the deverbal compounds by far outnumber the denominal ones.”تتناول هذه الورقة البحثية البادئة النافية at التي تدخل علي الأسماء والأفعال لتکون اسما مجردا منفيا (صفة منفية) حيث إنه يوجد العديد من الأسماء المجردة تتکون من البادئة النافية at . علاوة على ذلک، جميع الأسماء المجردة المنفية بالأداة at، تلحق بها.في اللغة القبطية، هناک القليل من الصفات الحقيقية، ويرجع ذلک إلى أن الشکل القديم للغة کان غنيا بأفعال الصفات، ويتم التعبير عن الصفة في القبطية عن طريق جملة الصلة أو الأسماء المرتبطة ببعضها من خلال أداة الإضافة n -،. هذه الصفة تتبع اسمها في النوع (مذکر أو مؤنث)وقد تم إجراء تحليل لاستخدام البادئة السالبة في اللغة القبطية. حيث ينقسم استخدامها إلى مجموعتين:أولا: البادئة النافية at مع الأفعالثانيا: البادئة النافية at مع الأسماءحيث تم توضيح الفارق في المعني بين أصل الفعل والاسم وبين الکلمة المسبوق بـ at وکذلک الأصل المصري القديم والديموطيقي لکل کلمة مع الشرح بأمثلة.الصفة المنفية، التي تتألف من البادئة النافية at + الفعل أو الاسم، تتبع اسمها، لکنها ترتب معا بأداة الإضافة n-، کما أن لها وظائف نحوية وصفية: تمثل المبتدأ أو الخبر في الجملة الأسمية، ويتم تقديم لمحة عامة عن الوظائف النحوية في الاستنتاجات.في الختام، تم عمل ملحقين بهم جميع الأسماء المجردة المنفية بـ at طبقا لما ورد في قاموس المفردات القبطي Crum's Coptic Dictionary، أحدهما للأفعال والآخر للأسماء، حيث نجد أن عدد الأفعال المتصلة بـ at أکثر من الأسماء المتصلة بـ at.

정보구조 관점에서 본 중국어 관계절 구조의 특징

The relative structure is the one in which the relative clause is backgrounded and the head noun is foregrounded to be promoted to the matrix sentence. Therefore, the relative structure in which the relative clause includes the subject - old information, and the head noun is relativised object - new information is the unmarked information structure of the Chinese sentence. On the other hand, the relative structure in which the relative clause includes the object - new information, and the head noun is relativised subject - old information is the marked information structure. This explains why the frequency of emergence of relative structures with relativised objects is much higher than that of relative structures with relativised subjects. The relative structure is rarely used as the subject of a transitive verb, and is mainly used as the object of a transitive verb or the subject of an intransitive verb. This can be explained in that the object of the transitive verb and the subject of the intransitive verb are generally new information, and the subject of the transitive verb is mainly old information. While old information is mainly expressed by pronouns, new information is introduced by lexical nouns, so the relative structure that adds lexical information about head nouns is suitable for delivering new information. Therefore, it appears mainly in locations that require new information, such as the object of a transitive verb or the subject of the intransitive verb, and is rarely used as the subject of the transitive verb.

Den herre språkdama på de derre tekstlabben

Complex demonstratives consist of a definite element (in Norwegian e.g. den or sa) followed by a deictic element which can be proximal (‘here’) or distal (‘there’). In Norwegian there is much variation in complex demonstratives, in particular in the dialects. Many dialects have demonstrative systems that differ considerably from the systems found in the standard varieties Nynorsk and Bokmål. Some systems make more distinctions than the standard varieties, for example nominative and dative case, or different forms for deictic and anaphor-ic reference, whereas other systems make fewer distinctions than the standard varieties, for example with an invariant deictic element that does not agree with the head noun in gender and number. We illustrate these systems using older and newer corpus data from different parts of the country. Our focus is however on dialects from Central Norway.

Formell og semantisk adjektivkongruens i norsk

This article provides an empirically based overview and discussion of types of adjectival agreement in attributive and predicative posisitions in Norwegian. In particular, we focus on two empirical facts that are quite striking: 1) With semantic agreement in predicative position, there are apparently no formal agreement features in the predication subject that trigger agreement on the predicative adjective; 2) Even though there is not alway formal agreement betwen the predication subject and a predicative adjective, there is always strict formal agreement between the head noun and an attributive adjective.

Korean internally-headed relative clauses: Encoding strategy and semantic relevance

ABSTRACT This study explores semantic relevance between internally-headed relative clauses (RCs) and main clauses in Korean, and argues that semantic relevance is caused by the encoding strategy of an internally-headed RC, which is shared by perception-verb complements. An internally-headed RC is distinguished from a gap RC in that the head noun appears in the RC as a full noun. Previous studies have argued that, along with the difference in the position of the head noun, semantic relevance is also required for an internally-headed RC. After showing that descriptions of semantic relevance in previous studies have explanatory limitations, we re-examine semantic relevance by focusing on the encoding strategy of internally-headed RCs, which is shared by complement clauses. The findings show that semantic relevance is required for internally-headed RCs that formally resemble perception-verb complements. After defining semantic relevance as describing a temporary state and as representing causal, temporal and concessive meanings, we explain the former with a perception requirement and the latter with a ‘perception–reaction’ relation between an internally-headed RC and a main clause.

Noun Phrase in Mandailing Language

This paper discusses on the rules of Noun Phrase (NP) in Mandailing language. The objectives are firstly to structurally examine the phrase structure rules (PSR) of NP in Mandailing language and to investigate the constituents of each rules in NP. The method is descriptive qualitative with a case study. The data taken from the native speakers of Mandailing language through interviewing. The data are the utterances of Mandailing language in daily conversation. The analysis is based on the use of X-Bar theory, to see how NPs in Mandailing language are hierarchically governed and presented in tree diagram. Thus, the findings showed that there are five major rules of NP in Mandailing language, (a) single noun as headword, (b) pre-modifier preceedes head noun, (c) post-modifiers follows head noun, (d) head noun between pre-modifier and post-modifier, and (e) complex NP with coordinative conjunction. Also, there is found particle na to relate NP with the complement such as AP. To summarize, Mandailing language has similar patterns of word order with Indonesia language. Overall, this research gives contribution to provide a deep understanding in studying morphosyntactic in linguistics especially phrase structures beyond the effort on exploring and revitalizing a regional language in Indonesia.

О водско-ижорской конвергенции и внутриидиолектном континууме (на примере одной кумулятивной руны)

This paper analyses different variants of the Votic chain rune Kuza piippu? “Where is the pipe?” in the context of Votic-Ingrian convergent processes. The main focus is made on the alternation between the lexemes “granary” and “fence”, and the structure of postpositional phrases containing these lexemes. The analysis is based on 13 variants of the rune published by several researchers, and three variants of the same rune recorded by the author in the village of Luuditsa of the Kingisepp region. In different variants of Kuza piippu?, three lexemes alternate within the same line: ratiz ‘granary’, aitta ‘granary’, and aita ‘fence’. The paper concludes that the first variant is the original Votic lexeme meaning ‘granary’, the second one is an Ingrian word that was not fully adopted by Votic, and the third variant emerged as a substitution of the unfamiliar Ingrian word with the phonetically closest Votic word. The Ingrian influence is observed also in the postpositional phrase with the discussed lexemes (‘under the granary ~ fence’). In the earlier versions of the rune, one finds the postposition alla ‘under’ as a separate word. In more recent variants, the head noun and postposition are usually written together as one word, with a formative n between them. This n is the Ingrian marker of the genitive case that was later re-analyzed as the initial consonant of the postposition (alla > nalla). The research has revealed that even in the variants recorded from the same speaker, the combination of Votic and Ingrian elements is almost arbitrary. The Votic-Ingrian ratio is not as much a characteristic of the idiolect, but rather a characteristic of a particular text. Therefore, the idiolect cannot be considered as a minimal sociolinguistic object. The author introduces the notion of “variolect” as a language variant with a particular ratio of languages in contact that characterizes a given speech sample. The mixing of Votic and Ingrian in the western Votic villages is a vivid example of iterative convergence. The Lower Luga Ingrian that emerged as a convergent variety on the basis of several Finnic languages (Ingrian and Votic, most of all), gives birth to new contact varieties when acquired by Votic speakers.

THE SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE OF AWGNI NOUN PHRASES

The objective of this study is to examine the syntactic structure of Awgni Noun Phrases. The assumption of Labeling Algorithm {XP, H} is holding on, and a descriptive research design was employed to explore the intended objective. Data for this research were enriched by interviewing 12 native speakers of Awgni specializing in the proposed language. Through expert samplings, 20 Noun Phrases were selected and illustrated. Results showed that the Noun Phrases in Awgni could be formed out of the head Nouns all along through other lexical categories reminiscent of the Noun Phrases, Adjective Phrases, Verb Phrases, Determiner Phrases, and Adverb Phrases. These grammatical items were serving as dependents to the head Nouns. The head Nouns in Awgni are for all time right-headed. These heads are the only obligatory constituents, while the Phrasal categories are optional elements which could be either modifiers or complements to the head Nouns. In this regard, Labeling Algorithm explicitly chooses the contiguous Noun heads that are the label of the complete Syntactic Objects (SOs) anticipated for all Noun Phrase structures.

Bridging caught in a crossfire: The marker of situated definiteness in Mano and language contact

In this article, I review the basic semantic functions of the determiner à in the South Mande language Mano, which is used to mark situated definiteness: most prominently, bridging and anaphora. The marker derives from the 3sg pronoun. Similar markers are also used in a number of other South Mande languages, including Kla-Dan, Dan-Gweetaa, Guro, Tura and Gban. In Mano, as well as in the former four languages the head noun takes an optional low-tone head marking, which is more frequent in Mano than in other languages. I argue that the increased frequency of use of the marking is influenced by contact with the Southwest Mande language Kpelle, which has a grammaticalized preposed definiteness marker, also deriving from a 3sg prefix, and triggering low tone on the noun it attaches to.

Acquisition of Japanese relative clauses by L1 Chinese learners: Evidence from reflexive pronoun resolution

This article investigates whether first-language (L1) Chinese-speaking learners of Japanese as a second language (L2) can acquire the knowledge that the reflexive pronoun jibun ‘self’ within the head noun phrase of Japanese relative clauses cannot refer to the relative clause subject. Successful acquisition would suggest that learners are able to acquire the underlying syntactic knowledge that the head noun phrase of Japanese relative clauses is base-generated external to the relative clause. A truth value judgment experiment was conducted and the findings suggest that L1 Chinese learners can indeed acquire the target syntactic knowledge in Japanese relative clauses, which argues against the Representational Deficit hypotheses and supports the Full Functional Representation hypotheses of L2 acquisition.

CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF FRENCH AND NUBIAN: NOUN PHRASE CONSTRUCTIONS

This study aims to reveal the similarities and differences between French and Nubian languages regarding the internal structure of their noun phrases and the order of the constituents in their simple and complex noun phrases. To this end, the contrastive analysis (CA) is applied which is composed of three steps as (1) description; (2) juxtaposition; (3) comparison. The contrastive analysis in this study shows that French and Nubian languages have many differences regarding the placement of a head noun, the placement of an adjective of size and quality, the placement of numerals and the case marker in a complex noun phrase and share fewer similarities such that both languages can use two adjectives successively in a complex noun phrase. The findings of this study contribute to comparative historical linguistics to establish language genealogy, to typological linguistics to create language taxonomies, to translation studies to investigate problems of equivalence in creating bilingual dictionaries.

Towards a unified analysis of Katcha nominal modifiers

Abstract This paper presents a description and analysis of the syntax of nominal modifiers in Katcha. The three main types of nominal modifiers in Katcha, demonstratives, possessive noun phrases and relative clauses, all agree with their head noun in gender, are morphologically marked when their head noun is a peripheral argument of the verb, and can occur in ‘headless’ constructions where there is no overt head noun. In the latter case they have a pronominal interpretation. The paper argues that a unified account of all nominal modifiers can be provided by adopting two premises: firstly, the possessive and relative markers are allomorphs of the proximal demonstrative; secondly, demonstratives in Katcha are pronouns rather than determiners. All nominal modifiers can then be characterized as appositional phrases headed by demonstrative pronouns. This characterization allows the inclusion of the medial and distal pronouns into the system, explaining why they have a different form to all other nominal modifiers, but identical distribution. The final section adds cross-linguistic perspective by discussing the relationship between this analysis of Katcha and the notion of construct state, most familiar in Semitic, but which has been argued to be a concept appropriate to a number of African languages.

Attachment height and prosodic phrasing in Rutooro

Rutooro is a Bantu language of Uganda that lacks lexical tone. Instead, prominence in Rutooro is marked with a High tone (H) on the penultimate syllable of the phonological phrase (φ-phrase). Like many languages in the family, syntactic XPs reliably correspond to φ-phrases; however, we find a previously unattested pattern in the prosody of Rutooro adnominal phrases. Head nouns are marked H when they combine with strong determiners and full relative clauses (RCs). In contrast, nouns do not bear an H tone when they combine with weak determiners, adjectives, and reduced RCs. We propose that the distribution of H tones serves as a diagnostic for whether an adnominal is generated in a DP-internal or external position. Reduced object RCs with overt subjects are a special case: the relativized head bears an unexpected H tone, while the subject is all-Low despite the fact that it is a self-contained XP. Also in the realm of reduced RCs, when a relativized head is separated from the RC by an additional modifier, e.g. an adjective, that modifier is realized as all-Low even though it is phrasal. We hypothesize that the attested, nonisomorphic phrasing arose to prevent i) ambiguity and ii) prosodic indeterminacy—when prosodic structure could be the output of more than one syntactic configuration—and was subsequently grammaticalized.