Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

Individual-level predicate:
See °Stage-level predicate.
Glossary 1125
Intensifier:
An adverbial modifier of a scalar adjective that specifies the degree to which the
property denoted by the adjective holds. There are three types of intensifiers:
AMPLIFIERS, which scale upwards from a tacitly assumed norm, DOWNTONERS,
which scale downwards from the assumed norm, and NEUTRAL INTENSIFIERS,
which are neutral in this respect.
Island for extraction:
An island for extraction is a constituent out of which extraction cannot take place.
A distinction can be made between strong and weak islands. Strong islands are
constituents out of which extraction is blocked categorically, whereas weak islands
are constituents out of which only certain elements (especially adjunct phrases)
cannot be extracted.
Lexical Integrity Constraint:
Constraint according to which no syntactic process may affect a subpart of a word.
For example, wh-movement may not apply to the first part of the compound CDspeler
in (ia).
(i) a. Jan kocht [een [N CD-speler]]
Jan bought a CD player
b. Wati kocht Jan [een [N ti speler]]?
what bought Jan a player
Logical SUBJECT (vs. grammatical subject):
The constituent of which some other constituent in the clause is predicated. This
notion of logical SUBJECT coincides with the notion of external °argument in
generative grammar and is thus based on the °thematic relations within the clause. It
differs from the traditional notion of (grammatical) subject that is used to refer to
the nominative argument in the clause. In (ia), for example, the adjective leeg
‘empty’ is predicated of the noun phrase de fles ‘the bottle’, which therefore
functions as the logical SUBJECT of leeg. Although this is not controversial, we will
assume in this work that the predicate and its SUBJECT form a SMALL CLAUSE, that
is, a complex constituent headed by the predicative element; cf. Stowell
(1981/1983). More examples are given in (ib&c), where the noun phrases Peter and
de boeken function as the SUBJECT of, respectively, a nominal and a prepositional
predicate.
(i) a. Jan gooide [SC de fles leeg].
Jan threw the bottle empty
b. Jan noemde [SC Peter een leugenaar].
Jan called Peter a liar
c. Jan zette [SC de boeken in de kast].
Jan put the books on the shelves