Showing papers on "Head (linguistics) published in 1992"

Cross-Linguistic Evidence for Number Phrase

Abstract: In this paper I provide cross-linguistic evidence for a functional projection between D and NP, which I call “Number Phrase” (NumP). In a full noun phrase, the head of this projection is, among other things, the locus of number specification (singular or plural) of a noun phrase. Pronominal noun phrases are distinguished from full noun phrases by the fact that they lack a lexical projection, i.e., they lack a NP. The existence of two distinct functional categories predicts the existence of at least two classes of pronouns, those of the category D, and those of the category Num. In both Modern Hebrew and Haitian, there is evidence that this prediction is borne out.

Central organization and modeling of eye-head coordination during orienting gaze shifts.

Abstract: An important function of motor control is to coordinate the trajectories of many simultaneously moving and coupled body segments. Perhaps the best understood of such neural systems is the one, reviewed here, that coordinates the eyes and head during a rapid saccadelike orienting movement of the visual axis, referred to as gaze. In this text the main characteristics of normal gaze shifts in alert subjects will be reviewed, and a model control scheme will be proposed which can duplicate the experimental data with several important implications.

Case and NP licensing

Abstract: This paper considers the theory of Case proposed in Pesetsky (1982) and adopted in Chomsky (1986a) and compares it to that proposed in Burzio (1986). Pesetsky's proposal is that a lexical feature of the verb determines whether or not it assigns accusative Case, and that possessing the feature [+Case] is what allows a head to c-select NP complements. I show that this proposal is empirically inadequate since (i) some heads that can assign Case are predicted by Pesetsky to be marked [−Case] and (ii) [+N] heads which do not assign Case differ as to whether they c-select NP complements. Furthermore, Pesetsky's proposal is stipulatory since there is no general way of predicting which V is marked [+Case]. Burzio's proposal that Case is a structural property of all verbs with specific theta properties is more adequate, both empirically and explanatorily. An additional conclusion is that Grimshaw's (1979, 1981) claim that heads subcategorize as well as select semantically is vindicated.

The logical approach to syntax : foundations, specifications, and implementations of theories of government and binding

Abstract: Part 1 Logical foundations: theories about strings deductive reasoning about languages deductive parsing - context-free phrase structure and natural language phrase structure. Part 2 Formalizing barriers: X-bar theory the theory of movement government and barriers structure, preservation, head movement and bounding the empty category principle and minimality. Part 3 Variations and elaborations: determiner phrases inflectional phrases and head movement VP-internal subjects. Part 4 Computational models: guided deductions from linguistic theory parsing as constraint satisfaction. Appendices: proving a negative result from RT the first order formalization a guided proof system.

Long Head Movement: the position of particles in the verbal cluster in Dutch

Abstract: The discussion within generative grammar about the underlying position of particles in Dutch goes back to Koster (1975) and Van Riemsdijk (1978). Koster argues that a verb and a particle constitute a compound verb. If the verb and the particle are separated this is due to the effect of Verb Move­ ment. Central to his account is the assumption that 'Dutch has no rule of Particle Movement at all' (Koster 1975:168). Van Riemsdijk claims that the particle is the head of a particle phrase in the complement of V. The fact that verb and particle may behave as one unit is accounted for by adopting a rule of Particle Incorporation which moves the particle to the verb (or rather to a basegenerated slot in the verbal frame). Although the theory has changed in many ways, these still are the two major positions that are defended with respect to the problem of the so-called separable compound verbs. Recently a lot of attention has been paid to this construction. This is of course the result of the recent interest in Head Movement since Baker (1988), Pollock (1989) and Chomsky (1986). Interestingly, most authors adopt Koster's position that particles are generated as part of a compound verb. An analysis along these lines can be found in Groos (1989), Booij (1990), Hoeksema (1991), Johnson (1991), Model (1991), Neeleman and Weerman (1991) and Verkuyl and Zwarts (1992). The analysis of Van Riemsdijk is not defend­ ed explicitly. However, the Small Clause analysis of particles, introduced by Kayne (1984), implies the occurrence of particle movement, in line with the original analysis of Van Riemsdijk. The SC-analysis of a class of Dutch particles is defended in T. Hoekstra et al. (1987), Den Dikken (1990), Bennis (1991) and E. Hoekstra (1991). In this paper I want to discuss the position of particles in the verbal cluster in Dutch. I will show that the distribution of particles can only be explained in a straightforward way if we allow the particle to be moved. Given that particle movement is a characteristic of the analysis in which the particle is the head of a particle phrase, the facts warrant an analysis along the lines of Van Riemsdijk (1978).

Phrase Structure and Directionality in Irish.

Abstract: In recent years the study of phrase structure has largely become a search for principles, parameters and other mechanisms to replace phrase-structure rules of the traditional sort. For capturing word order, one of the most common devices is the directionality parameter, especially the one which specifies a language as head-final or head-initial. It has also been proposed that languages may be specified for the direction of government (Stowell, 1981), or direction of Case- and theta-role assignment (Koopman, 1983; Travis, 1984). Often, such proposals focus only on the lowest (X′) level of phrase structure, that is to say the ordering of complements with relation to a head, but there have also been suggestions for directionality of specifiers or adjuncts (as in Ernst, 1989; Georgopoulos, 1991).

Head movement and Case-marking in Japanese

Abstract: This paper proposes a new system of Case-marking in Japanese which freely interacts with head-movement. Two different processes involved in Case-marking are clearly distinguished in the proposed system: Case-indexing and Case-assignment. Case-indexing takes place under government which is defined by c-command, rather than by m-command as is widely assumed, and constitutes a necessary condition for the fulfillment of Case theoiy. All major categories, lexical or functional, assign Case-indices. On the other hand, only the categories having Case-grids actually \"assign\" Case. Thus, functional categories in Japanese, having no features relevant for Case-assignment, do not assign Case, although they do assign Caseindices. In the proposed Case-marking system for Japanese, the role of functional categories in the language with respect to Case-marking is to license the realization of \"default Cases\" on unmarked phrases. It is shown that the Case-marking system successfully captures the nature of Caseparticles ga and no, as they contrast with other Case-particles such as o, in a more straightforward way than some of the previous analyses. It is also argued that the proposed Case-marking system makes possible a unified analysis for a number of constructions in Japanese, including nominal constructions, complement structures, control structures, and ga-no conversion. (Area of interest: formal syntax) 1. Introductory Remarks This paper proposes, in a preliminary form, a new system of Case-marking in Japanese by introducing the notion of \"Caseindexing.\" It a l so s h o w s how the processes relevant to the assignment of Case interact with modules of grammar, in particular, X° -movement , an instance of M o v e -

SOV Languages are Head Initial

Abstract: In his inspiring GLOW guest lecture, Richard Kayne argued that movement of syntactic constituents is invariably leftward (Kayne 1992). In combination with Chomsky’s Minimalist Program, in which movement invariably targets heads and specifiers in the functional domain (Chomsky 1992), Kayne’s observation leads to the conclusion that functional heads and specifiers of functional projections are always on the left side in a syntactic tree structure. Hence, if Kayne and Chomsky are correct, structure building operations in all languages follow the same, universal blueprint (illustrated in (1)).

Head-Driven Lexical Representation of Idioms in HPSG

Abstract: This paper is concerned with the lexical representation of idioms. We distinguish idioms from other kinds of multiple -word expressions like collocations, support-verb constructions, and lexicalized metaphors. A lexical representation for idioms in Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) is proposed, which can account for the syntactic variability found in idiomatic constructions, and for the non-compositional semantics of idioms. Since all idioms, which are not completely fixed, consist of a lexical head and "frozen" complements, the information about an idiomatic expression can be encoded in the subcategorization list of the idiom’s lexical head. Since idioms involve selection for particular lexemes, a feature is added to HPSG signs to encode this lexemic information. It will be argued that the Locality Principle of HPSG is too strong because it prohibits the representation of idioms proposed in this paper, and that the Semantics Principle must be modified. We explain the fact that some idioms do not passivize by the fact that no thematic role is assigned to accusative objects like the bucket in kick the bucket.

-So- and -No-: Aged parents in new garb

Abstract: In this article the use of the formatives -so- and -no- is investigated in words like usokhaya ‘head of the household’ (< ikhaya ‘home’), uSobantu ‘Father of the people’ (< abantu ‘people’), uNomkhubulwane ‘Princess of the rain/harvest’ (< khubula ‘to rereap, resow’), and unompempe ‘referee’ (< impempe ‘whistle’). I also look at the way in which these formatives have been treated by scholars, debate their status as compound nouns, and examine the relationship between marking for sex and noun classes 1(a) and 3(a). The specific use of these morphemes in the formation of personal names and clan-names, as opposed to common nouns, is also investigated. Finally, I look at the productivity of these formatives in the developing Zulu language, particularly in relationship to adopting words from other languages.

Sound rule synthesizer

Abstract: PURPOSE:To generate consonant duration more nearer to natural sound by setting the duration length of a consonant by using information of either the kind of phonemes before and behind two phonemes, that of part of speech of a word, the positions of a text, an exhalation paragraph, and a phrase and the number of morae CONSTITUTION:A phoneme duration length setting rule dictionary 204 holds a rule for the setting of phoneme duration, and a phoneme duration length setting part 201 sets the phoneme duration by using the rule, and supplied it to a sound parameter generation part 104 In such a case, part or whole of the following setting rule are provided The setting of the consonant duration can be established by the rule classified by every consonant of phoneme or by every group(including one consonant) unifying consonants with similar trend When a large number of morae exist in the phrase, length is decreased for mean consonant duration length, and when no large number of morae exists, it is increased A phrase head is increased for the consonant mean duration length A phrase end is also increased, however, it is not so much increased compared with the phrase head In the kind of part of speech including the consonant, the consonant duration is increased in a noun and an adjective excluding a pronoun, and is decreased in the pronoun, an end postpositional work, and a connection postpositional word, etc

Oxford pocket English idioms

Abstract: Introduction How to use this book 1. Key words with idiomatic uses Adjectives and adverbs bad, big, dead, flat, good, hard, high, hot, long, old, short, thick, thin Nouns end, line, matter, mind, point, thing, way, word, world Miscellaneous all, how, it (as subject), it (as object), that, there, too, what 2. Idioms with nouns and adjectives Noun phrases e.g. a drop in the ocean Adjective + noun e.g. a close shave 3. Idiomatic pairs Pairs of adjectives e.g. cut and dried Pairs of nouns e.g. wear and tear Pairs of adverbs e.g. more or less Pairs of verbs e.g. hit and miss Identical pairs e.g. bit by bit 4. Idioms with prepositions above, across, after, against, at, behind, below, by, for, from, in, of, off, on, out, over, round, to, under, up 5. Phrasal verbs e.g. act up, allow for something, be into something, call something off, make something up to someone 6 Verbal idioms e.g. blow one's own trumpet, call a spade a spade, come to grips with something, do a bunk 7 Idioms with key words from special categories Animals Colours black, blue, green, grey, red, white Numbers, size, measurement number, one, two, three etc., size, inch, mile Parts of the body arm, back, blood, bone, brain, chest, ear, elbow, eye, face, finger, foot, feet, hair, hand, head, heart, heel, leg, neck, nose, shoulder, skin, toe, tongue, tooth, teeth Time day, hour, minute, moment, night, time 8 Idioms with comparisons Comparisons with as ...as e.g. as bold as brass Comparisons with like e.g. go like the wind Exercises Key to exercises Index

Generation of accent in nominally premodified noun phrases

Abstract: The primary purpose of this paper is to present a set of conditions that constrain accent placement in focused nominally premodified NPs. Selkirk (1984) argues that if the premodifier is an argument of the head, then the head can be deaccented. I agree with Selkirk's proposal and argue that what is essential is not whether the premodifier is a grammatical argument of the head noun, but rather, whether it is a θ-complement in lexical conceptual structure. This proposal is evaluated by testing it against a corpus of naturally occurring data.