A generic framework for Arabic to English machine ... - Acsu Buffalo

3.3. NOUN PHRASE STRUCTURE
appropriate to say that at least some nouns take arguments analogous to verbs taking ar-
guments, and therefore it is also appropriate to posit a layered structure for NPs (LSNP)
similar but not identical to that for clauses. Relating to the fundamental functional dif-
ference between verbs and nouns, is that the nominal nucleus NUCN dominates a REF
(for ‘reference’) node, indicating that the unit in question refers, in contrast to the PRED
(for ‘predicate’) node which appears in the nucleus of a clause. The word ‘of’ is non-
predicative in this construction, because it does not license the argument; moreover, it is
semantically empty, as it can occur with argument NPs having many different semantic
functions (Van Valin and LaPolla 1997). Consider the range of semantic functions which
the of-NPs have in the following examples.
(2.2)
a. the attack of the killer bees Agent
b. the gift of a new car Theme
c. the destruction of the city Patient
d. the leg of the table Possessor
e. the resupplying of the troops (with ammunition) Recipient
(Nunes 1993) shows that NPs have only a single direct core argument, and it is marked
by of. This is consistent with the point made above that of does not mark any particular
semantic relation, in much the same way that the direct grammatical functions, subject
and direct object, are not restricted to particular semantic functions. Accordingly, the of-
marked NP counts as the single direct syntactic argument of the nominal nucleus in the
core of the NP. Predicative adpositions, by contrast, have well-defined semantic content,
like other predicates.
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