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The English Noun Phrase in its Sentential Aspect - Vinartus

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<strong>The</strong> <strong>English</strong> <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong><strong>in</strong> <strong>its</strong> <strong>Sentential</strong> <strong>Aspect</strong>bySteven Paul AbneyB.A., Indiana University(1983)SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THEREQUIREMENTS OF THE DEGREE OFDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN LINGUISTICSat theMASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGYJune 1987cSteven Paul Abney, 1987<strong>The</strong> author hereby grants to M.I.T. permission to reproduce and todistribute copies of this thesis document <strong>in</strong> whole or <strong>in</strong> part.Signature of AuthorCertied byAccepted byDepartment of L<strong>in</strong>guistics and Philosophy8May 1987Richard Larson<strong>The</strong>sis SupervisorWayne O'NeilChairman, Departmental Committee


<strong>The</strong> <strong>English</strong> <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong>In Its <strong>Sentential</strong> <strong>Aspect</strong>bySteven Paul AbneySubmitted to the Department of L<strong>in</strong>guistics and Philosophy on8May1987, <strong>in</strong> partial fulllment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor ofPhilosophy <strong>in</strong> L<strong>in</strong>guisticsABSTRACTThis dissertation is a defense of the hypothesis that the noun phrase isheaded by afunctional element (i.e., \non-lexical" category) D, identiedwith the determ<strong>in</strong>er. In this way, the structure of the noun phrase parallelsthat of the sentence, which is headed by In(ection), under assumptionsnow standard with<strong>in</strong> the Government-B<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g (GB) framework.<strong>The</strong> central empirical problem addressed is the question of the properanalysis of the so-called \Poss-<strong>in</strong>g" gerund <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>. This constructionpossesses simultaneously many properties of sentences, and many propertiesof noun phrases. <strong>The</strong> problem of captur<strong>in</strong>g this dual aspect of the Poss<strong>in</strong>gconstruction is heightened by current restrictive views of X-bar theory,which, <strong>in</strong> particular, rule out the obvious structure for Poss-<strong>in</strong>g, [ NP NPVP <strong>in</strong>g ], by virtue of <strong>its</strong> exocentricity.Consideration of languages <strong>in</strong> which nouns, even the most basic concretenouns, show agreement (AGR) with their possessors, po<strong>in</strong>ts to an analysisof the noun phrase as headed by an element similar to In, which provides aposition for AGR I call this In-like element \D". D and In belong to theclass of non-lexical categories, which I prefer to call functional categories.<strong>The</strong> analysis <strong>in</strong> which D heads the noun phrase I call the \DP-analysis".Import<strong>in</strong>g the DP-analysis <strong>in</strong>to <strong>English</strong> yields an immediate solution forthe problem of the Poss-<strong>in</strong>g gerund: Poss-<strong>in</strong>g gerunds (and by extension,noun phrases generally) have a more sentence-like structure than hithertothought, namely, [ DP DP's D VP <strong>in</strong>g ]. (In non-gerundive noun phrases,\VP" is replaced by a projection of N. This projection of N, despite be<strong>in</strong>ga maximal X-bar projection, corresponds to N-bar <strong>in</strong> the standard analysis.)Current trends <strong>in</strong> the treatment of m<strong>in</strong>or categories|so-called \nonlexical"categories|lead us to a similar conclusion. Until recently, m<strong>in</strong>orcategories like complementizers and modals had been treated as syncategorematic.Under current assumptions, however, they participate fully <strong>in</strong>the X-bar schema. Inthisway, two simplications are achieved simultaneously:we elim<strong>in</strong>ate syncategorematic elements, and we acquire an endo-


centric analysis of the sentence, which had been exceptional <strong>in</strong> be<strong>in</strong>g theonly exocentric major category. To make these results fully general, we areled to treat the rema<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g syncategorematic elements|<strong>in</strong> particular, determ<strong>in</strong>ers<strong>in</strong> noun phrases and degree words <strong>in</strong> adjective phrases|as headsof full phrases. <strong>The</strong> analogy with complementizers and modals <strong>in</strong>dicatesthat determ<strong>in</strong>ers and degree words should head noun phrases and adjectivephrases, respectively. In other words, determ<strong>in</strong>ers are lexical <strong>in</strong>stantiationsof \D" <strong>in</strong> the same way that modals are lexical <strong>in</strong>stantiations of In.However, despite the conceptual l<strong>in</strong>ks, the question of the existence ofa functional head of the noun phrase (the DP-analysis), and the questionof the place of the determ<strong>in</strong>er, are <strong>in</strong>dependent questions, and I treat themseparately: Chapters One through Three are concerned predom<strong>in</strong>ately withthe former question, Chapter Four with the latter.Chapter One provides a brief <strong>in</strong>troduction. In Chapter Two I presentthe DP-analysis, motivat<strong>in</strong>g it by exam<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g languages with agreement betweennoun and possessor. I also discuss issues raised by the DP-analysis,with emphasis on the parallelism between noun phrase and sentence hypothesizedunder the DP-analysis. In particular, I treat the question of PRO<strong>in</strong> the noun phrase and I show that the numerous dierences betweensentence and noun phrase do not <strong>in</strong>validate the parallelism of structureproposed under the DP-analysis. In Chapter Three I apply the analysis tothe three gerundive constructions, Acc-<strong>in</strong>g, Poss-<strong>in</strong>g, and Ing-of. F<strong>in</strong>ally,<strong>in</strong> Chapter Four, I turn to the question of whether the determ<strong>in</strong>er is thelexical <strong>in</strong>stantiation of D, the functional head of the noun phrase.<strong>The</strong>sis Supervisor: Dr. Richard K. Larson Title: Assistant Professor ofL<strong>in</strong>guistics3


4AcknowledgementsIwould like toacknowledge, rst of all, my debttomymany teachers andmentors these last four years: to my thesis advisor, Rich Larson, for hisguidance <strong>in</strong> matters syntactic and semantic, as well as for sound advice <strong>in</strong>the mechanics of thesis-writ<strong>in</strong>g. To the other members of my committee:Noam Chomsky, Ken Hale, and Richie Kayne. To Jim Higg<strong>in</strong>botham, withwhom I have worked closely s<strong>in</strong>ce com<strong>in</strong>g to MIT unfortunately for me, heis <strong>in</strong> Pisa this semester. Thanks also to Jay Keyser, both for guidance <strong>in</strong>l<strong>in</strong>guistics and encouragement <strong>in</strong>my computational <strong>in</strong>terests and to MorrisHalle, for encouragement and direction, and for keep<strong>in</strong>g me aware of thebeauties of phonology.Though none of my work <strong>in</strong> pars<strong>in</strong>g has found <strong>its</strong> way <strong>in</strong>to this thesis,nonetheless a very important partofmy<strong>in</strong>tellectual development asa graduate student has been <strong>in</strong> the area of computation. I am especially<strong>in</strong>debted to Sam Epste<strong>in</strong>, my mentor at Bell Communications Research,for provid<strong>in</strong>g me with a golden opportunity todevelop my ideas <strong>in</strong> pars<strong>in</strong>g,and for his <strong>in</strong>dispensable guidance and encouragement. At MIT, thanks toBob Berwick, for much help and direction to Carl Hewitt, for the opportunitytowork with the Apiary Project to Gul Agha, for endless supportand advice to Jennifer Cole, who I had the good fortune to collaboratewith <strong>in</strong> the summer and fall of 1985, <strong>in</strong> work on pars<strong>in</strong>g to Tom Re<strong>in</strong>hart,my Lispm guru and to Beth Lev<strong>in</strong>, for her guidance dur<strong>in</strong>g the summer Iworked for the Lexicon Project.Iwould like to thank the others with whom I worked at Bellcore: (alphabetically)George Collier, Stu Feldman, Mike Lesk, Maria Slowiaczek, DonWalker. I would also like to thank Don H<strong>in</strong>dle, Mitch Marcus, and RichardSproat, of AT&T Bell Laboratories and Bob Ingria of Bolt, Beranek, &Newman.In psychol<strong>in</strong>guistics, special thanks to Merrill Garrett and Janet Fodor.My studies at MIT were partially funded by a Mellon Graduate Fellowship<strong>in</strong> the Humanities I gratefully acknowledge their support.Among fellow students, present and past, the eight withwhomIhavebeen together s<strong>in</strong>ce 1983 will always be very special to me. I consider myselfvery lucky to have worked together with these people I only wish it weren'tover so soon. <strong>The</strong>y are: Hyon-Sook Choe, Jennifer Cole, John Lumsden,Doug Saddy, Ur Shlonsky, Michele Sigler, Carol Tenny, Loren Trigo. Stillamember of the group <strong>in</strong> spirit|though he left us for warm and sunnyPalo Alto |is Steve Neale. <strong>The</strong>re are also two unocial members of ourclass who have beenvery important to me: Betsy Ritter and Kyoko Masunaga.Among my other colleagues, I would especially like tomention DianaArchangeli (and husband Dante), Mark Baker, Andy Barss, Ed Barton,


Maggie Brown<strong>in</strong>g, Viviane Deprez, Naoki Fukui, Alicja Gorecka, MohamedGuerssel, Ewa Higg<strong>in</strong>s, Kyle Johnson, Mike Kashket, Mary Laughren, JulietteLev<strong>in</strong>, Anne Lobeck, D<strong>in</strong>ette Massam, Katie McCreight, Janis Melvold,Janet Nicol, Tova Rapoport, Malka Rappaport, Marc Ryser, Gabe Segal,Kelly Sloan, Peggy Speas, Tim Stowell, Cather<strong>in</strong>e Womack.Thanks to the sta <strong>in</strong> the L<strong>in</strong>guistics department, especially MaggieCarac<strong>in</strong>o and Nancy Peters.For my sanity and emotional well-be<strong>in</strong>g, I owe a great debt to CarolTenny and her parents|as well as to Mushka and Freddy the Weasel toMarc and Ilana Amrani-Cohen, and boss-man Edan to my family to BetsyRitter and to the <strong>in</strong>comparable Capitol <strong>The</strong>atre <strong>in</strong> Arl<strong>in</strong>gton. My deepestdebt, however, is to my wife N<strong>in</strong>a, for encourag<strong>in</strong>g, cajol<strong>in</strong>g, for love. It isto her that this work is dedicated.5


6To N<strong>in</strong>a


7Contents <strong>in</strong> BriefI. Introduction1. A Puzzle and Its Solution2. OverviewII.<strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong> and Sentence1. General Similarities2. In <strong>in</strong> the <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong>3. <strong>The</strong> DP-Analysis4. PRO <strong>in</strong> the <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong>5. Dierences Between <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong> and SentenceIII.Gerunds1. Introduction2. <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong> <strong>Aspect</strong>s of Poss-<strong>in</strong>g3. <strong>Sentential</strong> <strong>Aspect</strong>s of Poss-<strong>in</strong>g4. Analyses I: F<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g the Seams5. Analyses II: <strong>The</strong> Morphological Angle6. Conclusion: Syntactic AxationIV.Lexical determ<strong>in</strong>ers1. Determ<strong>in</strong>er As Head2. <strong>The</strong> Adjective <strong>Phrase</strong>3. <strong>The</strong> Position of Prenom<strong>in</strong>al Adjectives4. Conclusion


Contents1 Introduction 131 A Puzzle and Its Solution : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 131.1 <strong>The</strong> Puzzle : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 131.2 An Apparently Unrelated Fact : : : : : : : : : : : : 161.3 <strong>The</strong> Solution : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 181.4 <strong>The</strong> Identity ofX: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 201.5 Sentence and <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong> : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 212 Overview : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 222 <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong> and Sentence 231 General Similarities : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 232 In <strong>in</strong> the <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong> : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 272.1 Yup'ik : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 282.2 Mayan : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 312.3 Hungarian : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 322.4 Digression: Comp <strong>in</strong> the <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong> : : : : : : : : 332.5 Turkish : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 353 <strong>The</strong> DP-Analysis : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 383.1 Concepts and Term<strong>in</strong>ology : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 383.2 Functional Selection : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 433.3 Two Notions of Command : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 453.4 Det as Head : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 473.5 <strong>The</strong> Position of 's : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 513.6 Appendix: Selection of DP : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 564 PRO <strong>in</strong> the <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong> : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 584.1 PRO book: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 584.2 -theory : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 594.3 Control <strong>The</strong>ory : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 624.4 B<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g theory : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 634.5 Arguments Aga<strong>in</strong>st PRO <strong>in</strong> the <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong> : : : : 659


10 CONTENTS5 Dierences Between <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong> and Sentence : : : : : : : 695.1 Predication <strong>in</strong> the <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong> : : : : : : : : : : : : 695.2 Catalog of Dierences : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 745.3 Appendix: Reduc<strong>in</strong>g the Dierences : : : : : : : : : 953 <strong>The</strong> Gerund 1051 Introduction : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1051.1 <strong>The</strong> Range of Gerund Constructions : : : : : : : : : 1061.2 Reuland's Analysis of Acc-<strong>in</strong>g : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1072 <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong> <strong>Aspect</strong>s of Poss-<strong>in</strong>g : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1082.1 External evidence : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1082.2 Internal evidence : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1123 <strong>Sentential</strong> <strong>Aspect</strong>s of Poss-<strong>in</strong>g : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1163.1 VP <strong>in</strong> Poss-<strong>in</strong>g : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1163.2 PRO <strong>in</strong> the Gerund : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1163.3 \N-bar" Deletion : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1194 Analyses I: F<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g the Seams : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1214.1 Schachter : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1214.2 Horn : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1224.3 <strong>The</strong> D-VP Analysis : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1234.4 <strong>The</strong> D-IP Analysis : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1265 Analyses II: <strong>The</strong> Morphological Angle : : : : : : : : : : : : 1335.1 Jackendo : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1335.2 Pesetsky/Lebeaux : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1375.3 Baker : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1396 Conclusion: Syntactic Axation : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1416.1 A F<strong>in</strong>al Analysis : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1416.2 Axes <strong>in</strong> the Syntax : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1586.3 Verbal and Adjectival Passive : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1614 Lexical Determ<strong>in</strong>ers 1691 Determ<strong>in</strong>er As Head : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1701.1 Arguments for the Standard Analysis : : : : : : : : 1711.2 Sundry Evidence For Det As Head : : : : : : : : : : 1751.3 <strong>The</strong> Range of Speciers : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1822 <strong>The</strong> Adjective <strong>Phrase</strong> : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1892.1 Deg as Head : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1892.2 Adjective, Adverb, and Quantier : : : : : : : : : : 1902.3 <strong>The</strong> \Subject" of Deg : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1932.4 Extent Clauses : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1972.5 Two Speciers <strong>in</strong> the Adjective <strong>Phrase</strong> : : : : : : : : 2002.6 Overview of Structures : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 203


CONTENTS 113 <strong>The</strong> Position of Prenom<strong>in</strong>al Adjectives : : : : : : : : : : : : 2053.1 Two Hypotheses : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 2053.2 Adjective as Head of NP : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 2063.3 Two More Hypotheses : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 2134 Conclusion : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 224


12 CONTENTS


Chapter 1Introduction1 A Puzzle and Its Solution1.1 <strong>The</strong> PuzzleOne of the most perplex<strong>in</strong>g structures <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong> is the so-called \Poss-<strong>in</strong>g"gerundive construction. An example is:(1) John's build<strong>in</strong>g a spaceshipWhat makes this construction so perplex<strong>in</strong>g is that it seems to be neithersh nor fowl, so to speak. On the one hand, it is obviously a sentence buton the other hand, it is obviously a noun phrase.Considered with regard to <strong>its</strong> external distribution, the Poss-<strong>in</strong>g gerundivebehaves exactly like a noun phrase. It appears <strong>in</strong> noun-phrase positions|and particularly, <strong>in</strong> noun-phrase positions from which sentences are excluded,such as subject position under Subject-Aux Inversion, embeddedsubject position, or object of preposition:(2) a. *did [that John built a spaceship] upset you?did [John] upset you?did [John's build<strong>in</strong>g a spaceship] upset you?b. *I wondered if [that John built a spaceship] had upset youIwondered if [John] had upset youIwondered if [John's build<strong>in</strong>g a spaceship] had upset youc. *I told you about [that John built a spaceship]I told you about [John]I told you about [John's build<strong>in</strong>g a spaceship]13


14 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTIONLikewise, the \subject" of the gerundive|i.e., John's| behaves like the\subject" of a noun phrase (the possessor), not the subject of a sentence.This is most evident <strong>in</strong> the fact that it receives genitive case, not nom<strong>in</strong>ativecase:(3) [John] destroyed the spaceship[John's] destruction of the spaceship[John's] destroy<strong>in</strong>g the spaceshipIt is clear that externally, and with respect to the subject, the gerundiveis a noun phrase. We have this piece of structure, then:(4) NP/ \NP ?|John'sOn the other hand, it is equally clear that the rema<strong>in</strong>der of the gerundive,i.e., build<strong>in</strong>g a spaceship, constitutes a VP. -<strong>in</strong>g is a fully productiveverbal ax: any verb can appear <strong>in</strong> the gerundive construction. In thisway it diers from clear cases of derived nouns, which are quite sporadic <strong>in</strong>their productivity, <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>|we have destruction, for example, but not*debunktion referral, but not *<strong>in</strong>terral. More importantly, there is quite along list of processes and constructions which appear <strong>in</strong> the verb phrase, butnot <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g case assignment to the object, rais<strong>in</strong>g,Exceptional Case Mark<strong>in</strong>g (Rais<strong>in</strong>g to Object), double objects, particlesand particle movement, and numerous others. All of these constructionsare to be found <strong>in</strong> the gerundive:


1. A PUZZLE AND ITS SOLUTION 15(5) a. *John's destruction the spaceshipJohn destroyed the spaceshipJohn's destroy<strong>in</strong>g the spaceshipb. *John's appearance to be deadJohn appeared to be deadJohn's appear<strong>in</strong>g to be deadc. *John's belief Bill to be Caesar AugustusJohn believed Bill to be Caesar AugustusJohn's believ<strong>in</strong>g Bill to be Caesar Augustusd. *John's gift/rental (of) Mary (of) a FiatJohn gave/rented Mary a FiatJohn's giv<strong>in</strong>g/rent<strong>in</strong>g Mary a Fiate. *John's explanation (away) of the problem (away)John expla<strong>in</strong>ed (away) the problem (away)John's expla<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g (away) the problem (away)This gives us another piece of the structure:(6) ?\VP/ \V NP| |build<strong>in</strong>g a spaceship<strong>The</strong> puzzle is how to t these two pieces together| (4) and (6)|withoutdo<strong>in</strong>g violence to the pr<strong>in</strong>ciples which constra<strong>in</strong> phrase structure. <strong>The</strong> obviousway of putt<strong>in</strong>g them together, as <strong>in</strong> (7), does not satisfy this criterion:(7) NP/ \NP VP| / \John's V NP| |build<strong>in</strong>g a spaceship<strong>The</strong> structure (7) violates widely-assumed conditions on phrase structure,<strong>in</strong> that the highest NP lacks a head. VP cannot be the miss<strong>in</strong>g head,


16 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTIONbecause it does not have the same syntactic category as NP. If (7) is notthe correct structure, what is? To date, no fully satisfactory solution hasbeen given.It is my goal <strong>in</strong> the present work to solve the puzzle of the Poss-<strong>in</strong>ggerundive construction, and more generally, to defend the novel analysisof noun phrase structure upon which my solution depends, the so-called\DP-analysis". With agrant disregard for the pr<strong>in</strong>ciples of good mysterywrit<strong>in</strong>g, then, I sketch out my solution here <strong>in</strong> the <strong>in</strong>troduction. <strong>The</strong> restof the thesis is a denouement, <strong>in</strong> which Iwork out the details.1.2 An Apparently Unrelated Fact<strong>The</strong>re are a large number of languages <strong>in</strong> which anovert agreement elementappears <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase. Consider, for example, this paradigm fromHungarian (from Szabolcsi 1987):(8) az en kalap-omthe I:NOM hat-1sg\my hat"a te kalap-odthe you:NOM hat-2sg\your hat"a Peter kalap-jathe Peter:NOM hat-3sg\Peter's hat"Kalap- is a simple noun, not a verbal form|it could be replaced <strong>in</strong> thisparadigm by any noun at all. Yet kalap- agrees with <strong>its</strong> possessor, mark<strong>in</strong>g<strong>its</strong> person and number with an agreement marker (AGR). <strong>The</strong> possessor, <strong>in</strong>turn, bears nom<strong>in</strong>ative case, as does the subject of the sentence. It is generallyassumed (<strong>in</strong> the Government-B<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g paradigm, which I implicitlyadopt throughout) that nom<strong>in</strong>ative case <strong>in</strong> the sentence is assigned undergovernment byAGR hence the co-occurence of agreement and nom<strong>in</strong>ativecase. <strong>The</strong> m<strong>in</strong>imal assumption is that nom<strong>in</strong>ative case <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase<strong>in</strong> Hungarian is also assigned under government byAGR. As <strong>in</strong> the sentence,the subject of the noun phrase (i.e., the possessor) and AGR aremutually dependent. A nom<strong>in</strong>ative possessor can only appear when AGRis present, and AGR only appears when there is a possessor (though thatpossessor may at times be non-overt).In the sentence, AGR is assumed to occupy an Inectional position outsidethe maximal syntactic projection of V. <strong>The</strong> obvious hypothesis concern<strong>in</strong>gAGR <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase is that it occupies a similar Inectional


1. A PUZZLE AND ITS SOLUTION 17position i.e., that the structure of noun phrase and sentence are parallel <strong>in</strong>Hungarian:(9) Sentence: I'' <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong>: X''/ \ / \SUBJ I' POSSR X'/ \ / \I V'' X N'(')/ \ / \I AGR X AGRIt is not clear what the category X is, beyond say<strong>in</strong>g it is a nom<strong>in</strong>al In-ectional category. We cannot say it is In, as we would then be unableto dist<strong>in</strong>guish Sentence and <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong> as syntactic categories but it ismore like In than anyth<strong>in</strong>g else.A batch of questions arise immediately: What is the category X? Is theprojection of N which is sister to X maximal? If so, what consequences doesthat have for the relation between noun and possessor? What consequencesdoes the contemplated structure have for b<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g theory, predication, and-theory with respect to the possessor? What consequences does it havefor extraction from the noun phrase?Instead of fac<strong>in</strong>g this phalanx of questions, it may seem preferable tosuppose that AGR <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase does not appear <strong>in</strong> the same sort ofposition, structurally, asAGR <strong>in</strong> the sentence. An alternative is that AGRis simply adjo<strong>in</strong>ed to N 0 :(10) NP/ \POSSR N'|N/ \N AGRBut there are questions that this hypothesis raises as well. Why doesAGR co<strong>in</strong>dex only with the possessor, and never with e.g. an object nounphrase? Why doAGR <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase and <strong>in</strong> the sentence occupydierent positions? This latter question is made especially po<strong>in</strong>ted by thefact that the form of sentential AGR and nom<strong>in</strong>al AGR are frequently verysimilar. In Central Alaskan Yup'ik, for example, they are identical: 11 Yup'ik data drawn from Reed et al. (1977).


18 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION(11) kiputaa- \he bought it"kiputaa-t \they (dual) bought it"kiputaa-k \they (plural) bought it"kuiga-kuiga-tkuiga-k\his river"\their (dual) river"\their (plural) river"Also, AGR <strong>in</strong> the sentence and AGR <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase frequently assignthe same case: Nom<strong>in</strong>ative, <strong>in</strong> Hungarian ergative, <strong>in</strong> Yup'ik or Mayan.Clearly, the structure given <strong>in</strong> (9) for the noun phrase <strong>in</strong> Hungarianand similar languages is the m<strong>in</strong>imal hypothesis, and if the questions itraises can be satisfactorily answered|as I believe they can|it is em<strong>in</strong>entlypreferable to the alternatives.1.3 <strong>The</strong> Solution<strong>The</strong> relevance of the structure of the Hungarian noun phrase to the puzzleof the <strong>English</strong> gerund becomes clear (if it is not clear already) when weexam<strong>in</strong>e the Turkish gerund. Languages which possess a gerundive constructionof the Poss-<strong>in</strong>g type are very rare <strong>in</strong> fact, <strong>English</strong> and Turkishare the only two Ihave found. Turkish diers from <strong>English</strong> <strong>in</strong> that it alsohappens to be a language with overt AGR <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase: 2(12) el\the/a hand"sen-<strong>in</strong> el-<strong>in</strong>you-GEN hand-2sg\your hand"on-un el-ihe-GEN hand-3sg\his hand"Similar arguments as were forwarded concern<strong>in</strong>g Hungarian lead us to theconclusion that the noun phrase <strong>in</strong> Turkish is headed by an Inectionalelement, which hosts AGR, as <strong>in</strong> (9). <strong>The</strong> only dierence between Turkishand Hungarian is that the nom<strong>in</strong>al AGR <strong>in</strong> Turkish assigns genitive case,not nom<strong>in</strong>ative case.<strong>The</strong> Turkish gerund is constructed by add<strong>in</strong>g -dIg to a verb stem:2 Turkish data drawn from Underhill (1976).


1. A PUZZLE AND ITS SOLUTION 19(13) Halil'-<strong>in</strong> kedi-ye yemek- ver-me-di~g-iHalil-GEN cat-DAT food-ACC give-NEG-ING-3sg\Halil's not giv<strong>in</strong>g food to the cat"As <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>, the Turkish gerund behaves like a noun phrase <strong>in</strong> <strong>its</strong> distribution,and <strong>in</strong> show<strong>in</strong>g genitive case on the subject. On the other hand|aga<strong>in</strong>as <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>|kediye yemek vermedi~gi clearly constitutes a verb phrase.<strong>Noun</strong>s do not take accusative complements <strong>in</strong> Turkish, for example, anymore than <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>.But if we analyze the noun phrase <strong>in</strong> Turkish as <strong>in</strong> (9), an extraord<strong>in</strong>arilysimple account for the gerund falls <strong>in</strong>to our lap: under analysis (9), the nounphrase and sentence <strong>in</strong>volve Inectional elements tak<strong>in</strong>g projections of Nand V, respectively. <strong>The</strong> exceptionality of the gerund consists there<strong>in</strong>, thatthe nom<strong>in</strong>al Inectional element exceptionally takes VP as a complement,<strong>in</strong>stead of a projection of N. (14a) gives the structure of a non-gerundivenoun phrase <strong>in</strong> Turkish, (14b) that of a gerund:(14) a. XP b. XP/ \ / \GEN X' GEN X'/ \ / \X N'(') X VP<strong>The</strong> source of the gerund construction, under this analysis, is a selectionalquirk of X|<strong>in</strong> the gerundive, X exceptionally takes a verbal rather thannom<strong>in</strong>al complement.In <strong>English</strong>, we need only suppose that there is an empty nom<strong>in</strong>al AGRassign<strong>in</strong>g Genitive case, exactly correspond<strong>in</strong>g to the nom<strong>in</strong>al AGR we seeovertly <strong>in</strong> Turkish. With that, we can import <strong>in</strong>to <strong>English</strong> the analysis wejust sketched for gerunds <strong>in</strong> Turkish, giv<strong>in</strong>g us a remarkably simple andpr<strong>in</strong>cipled solution for the puzzle of the gerund. <strong>The</strong> pieces t together thisway:(15) XP (<strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong>)/ \XP X'| / \John's X VP| / \AGR V XP| |build<strong>in</strong>g a spaceship


20 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION1.4 <strong>The</strong> Identity ofX<strong>The</strong> most important loose end <strong>in</strong> my solution is the identity of the categoryX. One answer would be that it is a new, previously unrecognized categoryit is simply the noun-phrase correlate of In, and the only member of categoryX is the <strong>in</strong>visible AGR which assigns genitive case. One might objectthat it would be impossible for a language learner to learn of the existenceof X, if there is never any overt word of that category. For this reason, wewould have to assume that X as the category of the noun phrase is suppliedby Universal Grammar, and not learned.If the absence of overt members of category X does not necessarilyrender the hypothesis of the existence of X untenable, it would nonethelessbe much preferable if we could identify a class of lexical elements of categoryX. <strong>The</strong> lexical class of category In is the class of modals. <strong>The</strong> questionis then, What is the noun-phrase equivalent of the modal? And the onlyreal candidate, as far as I can see, is the determ<strong>in</strong>er. <strong>The</strong>re is some apriori plausibility to tak<strong>in</strong>g Determ<strong>in</strong>er to be our mystery category. It isgenerally assumed that every word projects a phrasal node. If there is aDetP, though, under standard assumptions about the structure of the nounphrase, it never conta<strong>in</strong>s any material except the determ<strong>in</strong>er. Where arethe complements and speciers of the determ<strong>in</strong>er? If we assumethatX= Determ<strong>in</strong>er, we kill two birds with one stone: we provide category Xwith lexical <strong>in</strong>stantiations, and we provide determ<strong>in</strong>ers with speciers (thepossessor) and complements (a projection of N): 3(16) DP DP DP/ \ / \ |DP D' DP D' D'| / \ | / \ / \John's D NP John's D NP D NP| | | | | |every N AGR N the N| | |moment book bookOn the basis of this speculation, I will use \D" to denote the mysterycategory X throughout, and I will call the hypothesis that there is an In-ectional head of the noun phrase, the \DP-analysis".It is important to note, though, that there are really two questions here,that turn out to be partially <strong>in</strong>dependent: (1) Is there an Inectional head3 Ihave been somewhat mislead<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> (16), <strong>in</strong> that every is the sole determ<strong>in</strong>er whichco-occurs with a possessor. All other determ<strong>in</strong>ers are ill-formed <strong>in</strong> this context: e.g.*John's the book. I discuss this <strong>in</strong> some detail <strong>in</strong> Chapter Four.


1. A PUZZLE AND ITS SOLUTION 21of the noun phrase? and (2) If there is an <strong>in</strong>ectional head of the nounphrase, is the determ<strong>in</strong>er <strong>its</strong> lexical <strong>in</strong>stantiation? In the rst part of thethesis, though I use the symbol \D" to denote the mystery category X, Iam for the most part only concerned with the rst question. In ChapterFour, I turn to the second question: whether <strong>in</strong> fact Determ<strong>in</strong>er = D.1.5 Sentence and <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong><strong>The</strong> solution I have proposed is, <strong>in</strong> eect, to assign a more sentence-likestructure to the <strong>English</strong> noun phrase than is commonly assumed. This isattractive for conceptual reasons, <strong>in</strong> addition to the empirical advantages itprovides. Verb versus noun is the most fundamental opposition <strong>in</strong> grammar,and it is appeal<strong>in</strong>g to be able to assign the phrases built on them| sentenceand noun phrase, respectively|parallel structure.Similarities between noun phrase and sentence are a recurrent theme <strong>in</strong>grammatical study. Sentence and noun phrase play a dist<strong>in</strong>guished role <strong>in</strong>many aspects of grammar: they were the two cyclic nodes, for <strong>in</strong>stance, <strong>in</strong>earlier versions of transformational grammar they are also the two categorieswhich freelyconta<strong>in</strong> subjects.On the other hand, there are very substantial dierences <strong>in</strong> noun-phraseand sentence structure, which cannot be ignored. A recurr<strong>in</strong>g theme of thethesis is noun-phrase/sentence similarities and dierences. I compare nounphrase/sentencestructure <strong>in</strong> a general way, briey, for completeness' sake.Iamchiey concerned, however, with a s<strong>in</strong>gle sentential aspect of the nounphrase: the existence of an Inectional head of the noun phrase.F<strong>in</strong>ally, while we are on the topic of noun-phrase/sentence parallels, itis perhaps relevant to note that the puzzle of how toputthetwo pieces ofthe Poss-<strong>in</strong>g gerund together is actually the same problem as led to the IPanalysis of the sentence. In earlier generative grammar, the node S stoodout as an exception to a restrictive version of X-bar theory that requiresall phrases to be headed. <strong>The</strong> solution proposed for tt<strong>in</strong>g the pieces ofthe sentence together was to raise the status of a m<strong>in</strong>or category, modal, tohead of the sentence, and to postulate an entirely abstract head <strong>in</strong> sentenceswhich lacked modals. I have simply imported this solution <strong>in</strong>to the nounphrase, to solve the puzzle of the gerund.


22 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION2 Overview<strong>The</strong> organization of the thesis is as follows. Chapter Two is titled \<strong>Noun</strong><strong>Phrase</strong> and Sentence". I beg<strong>in</strong> with a general discussion of parallels thathave been seen between sentence and noun phrase, historically, and parallels<strong>in</strong> their structure with<strong>in</strong> current theory. In section 2, I focus on the questionof In and AGR <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase, present<strong>in</strong>g a survey of languages <strong>in</strong>which nouns show agreement with their possessors. After consider<strong>in</strong>g theevidence for an Inectional head of the noun phrase, I consider how thisproposal should be spelled out, <strong>in</strong> section 3. In section 4, I discuss anissue raised <strong>in</strong> a new form by the In-<strong>in</strong>-NP analysis, which is of particularrelevance to noun-phrase/sentence parallelism: the question of PRO <strong>in</strong> thenoun phrase. F<strong>in</strong>ally, <strong>in</strong> section 5, I treat some of the dierences betweennoun phrase and sentence.Chapter Three is devoted to the <strong>English</strong> gerund. I present <strong>in</strong> detail theevidence which shows that it is accurate to characterize the gerund as acreature which is half noun phrase, half verb phrase. I discuss previousattempts to solve this riddle, and <strong>in</strong>corporate aspects of several of theseanalyses| especially that of Jackendo (1977)|<strong>in</strong>to my own solution. Anidea that plays a central role <strong>in</strong> my solution is that phonologically dependentaxes can behave as <strong>in</strong>dependent words, syntactically. Here I relyespecially on Baker (1985b).In Chapter Four, I turn to the question whether determ<strong>in</strong>ers are thelexical elements that occupy the D position. I argue that a major motivationfor assum<strong>in</strong>g so is that it provides us with enough positions <strong>in</strong> a \Two-Bar"X-bar theory to account for the quite complex range of dist<strong>in</strong>ctions to befound <strong>in</strong> the structure of the noun phrase specier. Aga<strong>in</strong>, I rely heavilyon Jackendo (1977). I also discuss the adjective phrase at some length,argu<strong>in</strong>g for parallel analyses of adjective phrase and noun phrase.


Chapter 2<strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong> andSentence1 General Similarities<strong>The</strong> similarities between noun phrase and sentence have received muchattention <strong>in</strong> Generative Grammar. In this section, I will consider a few ofthose similarities <strong>in</strong> a general way.Lees 1960, the rst doctoral dissertation to come from MIT <strong>in</strong> l<strong>in</strong>guistics,considered the similarities between sentences and noun phrases. Henoted, rst, that sentences and noun phrases are similar <strong>in</strong> their externaldistribution. Both sentence and noun phrase occur as subject or directobject both sentence and noun phrase undergo Passive:(17) a. John surprised me.That John came surprised me.b. Iknow John.Iknow that John came.c. John was known t by many l<strong>in</strong>guists.That John came was known t by many l<strong>in</strong>guists.For this reason, Lees assumed that embedded sentences were dom<strong>in</strong>atedby an NP node. For him, nom<strong>in</strong>alization <strong>in</strong>cluded not only derived nom<strong>in</strong>aland gerund, but all categories with sentence-like <strong>in</strong>ternal semantics,which appear <strong>in</strong> an argument position. This was a common view <strong>in</strong> earlygenerative grammar. At least <strong>in</strong> some contexts, embedded sentences were23


24 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCEdom<strong>in</strong>ated by noun phrases sometimes <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g noun heads, which weredeleted before surface structure.Of course, because two phrases share the same distribution, and aresubject to the same transformations, does not mean that they are necessarilythe same category. An obvious alternative is that the processes whichtreat NP and S the same are stated so as to operate on a class of categories,of which NPandS are members. This is the current view: NP and S arethe arguments.NP and S are not only dist<strong>in</strong>guished <strong>in</strong> be<strong>in</strong>g arguments, they were alsodist<strong>in</strong>guished as be<strong>in</strong>g the two cyclic nodes, <strong>in</strong> earlier generative grammar.That NP and S should be so dist<strong>in</strong>guished is not surpris<strong>in</strong>g. <strong>Noun</strong> andverb are the two most basic categories they play a centralrole<strong>in</strong>everylanguage. NP and S are their \maximal projections", <strong>in</strong> an <strong>in</strong>tuitive sense(which I will make precise below). This does not expla<strong>in</strong> why NP and Shave precisely the properties they have, but it does lead us to expect themto play a special role <strong>in</strong> the grammar.Another way thatsentences behave rather like noun phrases is <strong>in</strong> participat<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong> b<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g relations. Consider the follow<strong>in</strong>g examples:(18) a. [that words are mean<strong>in</strong>gless] i refutes <strong>its</strong>elf ib. *[that words are mean<strong>in</strong>gless] i refutes it i[that John is dead] i means that he doesn't know it ic. *it i proves that Bill th<strong>in</strong>ks [that words are mean<strong>in</strong>gful] i(18) illustrates sentences participat<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> b<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g relations that are subjectto the b<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g conditions. (18a), (b), and (c) illustrate b<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g conditionsA, B, and C, respectively.Lees also noted that certa<strong>in</strong> noun phrases|namely, derived nom<strong>in</strong>als|were similar to sentences <strong>in</strong> their <strong>in</strong>ternal structure, and he accounted forthese similarities by deriv<strong>in</strong>g the noun phrases transformationally from sentences.<strong>The</strong> <strong>in</strong>ternal similarities between sentence and noun phrase will beof much more concern for us than the similarities <strong>in</strong> their distribution. <strong>The</strong>most important reason for deriv<strong>in</strong>g noun phrases from sentences was toaccount for the near-synonymy <strong>in</strong> pairs like the follow<strong>in</strong>g:(19) a. [Nero's destruction of Rome] dismayed the Senate.b. [That Nero destroyed Rome] dismayed the Senate.No account was given of the <strong>in</strong>terpretation of either sentences or nounphrases, but it was considered that simplex sentences were the doma<strong>in</strong> of<strong>in</strong>terpretation. Hence, to account for the synomymy of the noun phrase


1. GENERAL SIMILARITIES 25<strong>in</strong> (19a) and the sentential subject of (19b), it was necessary to derivethem both from the same simplex sentence, viz., Nero destroyed Rome.<strong>The</strong> relevant part of the <strong>in</strong>terpretation of simplex sentences is represented<strong>in</strong> the current theory by -grids by assum<strong>in</strong>g destroy and destruction havethe same -grid, we can dispense with the transformational account of (19).Sentences and noun phrases are also similar with respect to processeslike control and b<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g. <strong>The</strong> basic b<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g facts are the same <strong>in</strong> sentenceand noun phrase:(20) John i portrayed himself iJohn i 's protrayal of himself i*himself i portrayed John i /him i*his own i portrayal of John i /him iJohn recommended for [himself i to portray himself i ]John recommended [his own i portrayal of himself i ]*John recommended for [himself i to portray him i ]*John recommended [his own i portrayal of him i ]Control facts are also similar <strong>in</strong> noun phrase and sentence.clauses can only be controlled by the subject, not the object:Adjunct(21) a. John criticized Bill j after his j talk.b. John's criticism of Bill j after his j talk.c. *John criticized Bill j after PRO j talk<strong>in</strong>g.d. *John's criticism of Bill j after PRO j talk<strong>in</strong>g.(Both (c) and (d) are ne where John controls PRO.)When Chomsky <strong>in</strong>troduced a non-transformational account of the thematicsimilarities between sentence and noun phrase (Chomsky 1970), healso considered the fact that a structural subject-object dist<strong>in</strong>ction wasnecessary <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase as well as sentence, and <strong>in</strong>troduced the nodeN|and X-theory|precisely for this reason. If we dene c-command as follows: c-commands if neither dom<strong>in</strong>ates the other, and the rst (branch<strong>in</strong>g)node dom<strong>in</strong>at<strong>in</strong>g dom<strong>in</strong>ates then with the <strong>in</strong>troduction of N-bar,the noun phrase and sentence are similar enough <strong>in</strong> structure to accountfor the facts of (20) and (21). <strong>The</strong> \subjects" of both noun phrase andsentence assymetrically c-command the objects, allow<strong>in</strong>g us to capture theassymetry <strong>in</strong> b<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g and control facts.A po<strong>in</strong>t onwhichsentence and noun phrase rema<strong>in</strong> dissimilar, underChomsky's account|which has become the standard account |is Case-


26 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCEand -assignment to the subject. In the noun phrase, the head's \external"-role is assigned <strong>in</strong>ternal to <strong>its</strong> maximal projection. In the sentence, theverb's external -role is assigned externally. To dist<strong>in</strong>guish <strong>in</strong>ternal andexternal -assignment, then, it seems we must aga<strong>in</strong> use the relation c-command with the rst-branch<strong>in</strong>g-node denition. Actually,we cannot sayrst branch<strong>in</strong>g node, but rst node: otherwise, we would <strong>in</strong>correctly characterizethe -role assigned to John <strong>in</strong> John's graduation (for example) asan <strong>in</strong>ternal -role. If (lack of) c-command by the head is the relation whichdenes external -assignment, we must characterize the relation betweenthe node which assigns the external -role and the recipient ofthatroleassometh<strong>in</strong>g dierent. Namely, VP does not c-command the subject of thesentence. <strong>The</strong> relation between VP and the subject is one of m-command(\m" for \maximal" the term is from Chomsky (1986a)): m-commands i neither dom<strong>in</strong>ates the other and the rst maximal projection dom<strong>in</strong>at<strong>in</strong>g dom<strong>in</strong>ates . (Of course, the relation is actually tighter thansimply m-command, namely government. Government is a special case ofm-command.)<strong>The</strong> other po<strong>in</strong>t of dissimilarity between sentence and noun phrase isCase-assignment to the subject. In recent work, Chomsky (1986b) assumesthat the Case-assigner of the subject of the noun phrase is the noun head.<strong>The</strong> Case-assigner of the subject of the sentence, on the other hand, isnot the verb, but AGR <strong>in</strong> In. In either case, the relation between theCase-assigner and the subject is aga<strong>in</strong> one of m-command, not c-command.I will return to the c-command/m-command dist<strong>in</strong>ction <strong>in</strong> section 3.3.I will argue that the dist<strong>in</strong>ction is only necessary because the structuralpositions standardly assigned to subject of noun phrase and subject ofsentence are not suciently parallel to account for the similarities <strong>in</strong> theirbehavior <strong>in</strong> a simpler manner. What is of greater <strong>in</strong>terest at the moment,however, is Case-assignment to the subject of the noun phrase. <strong>The</strong>re isevidence that, if tak<strong>in</strong>g the noun to be the assigner of genitive caseisnotobviously <strong>in</strong>adequate <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>, it is not adequate as a universal solution.Namely, there are numerous languages <strong>in</strong> which Case-assignment to thesubject of the noun phrase is much more similar to Case-assignment tothesubject of the sentence, than it is <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>. This will lead us to a dierentstructure for the noun phrase <strong>in</strong> these other languages, a structure whichis much more similar to the structure of the sentence. <strong>The</strong> question whichthen arises is whether this other structure|the DP-analysis|is adequateas a universal characterization of noun phrase structure, if the standardanalysis is not. I will show that it is adequate|<strong>in</strong> fact, highly desirable|for <strong>English</strong>.


2. INFL IN THE NOUN PHRASE 272 In <strong>in</strong> the <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong><strong>The</strong>re are numerous languages <strong>in</strong> which the noun phrase is much more likethe sentence than it is <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>, <strong>in</strong> that the noun phrase <strong>in</strong> these languageshas one or both or the follow<strong>in</strong>g properties: (1) a possessed noun agreeswith <strong>its</strong> subject <strong>in</strong> the same way that the verb agrees with <strong>its</strong> subject,and (2) the possessor receives the same case as the subject of the sentence,rather than a special genitive case. Schematically:(22) [ NP NP i -nom/erg N-agr i ... ]Both of these phenomena po<strong>in</strong>t to the existence of an AGR <strong>in</strong> the nounphrase: we see it overtly, and we see <strong>its</strong> eects <strong>in</strong> the case assigned to thepossessor. If there is an AGR, then the m<strong>in</strong>imal assumption is that there isan In-like position which it occupies. If not, we must nd an explanationfor why AGR occupies dierent positions <strong>in</strong> the sentence and noun phrase.<strong>The</strong> only alternative to postulat<strong>in</strong>g a noun-phrase In which suggests<strong>its</strong>elf is that AGR is adjo<strong>in</strong>ed to N 0 :(23) NP/ \NP N'|N/ \N AGRNot only is this less desirable a priori, because it makes it more dicultto account for the constra<strong>in</strong>ts on the positions <strong>in</strong> which AGR appears,but it is also empirically <strong>in</strong>adequate. Namely, it is reasonable to supposethat the conguration illustrated <strong>in</strong> (23), with \V" substituted for \N", isthe structure of object agreement markers: subject agreement markers aregenerated <strong>in</strong> In, object agreement markers <strong>in</strong> the verb. If NP lacks an Inlikeposition, we predict that it will only have object agreementmarkers. Infact, <strong>in</strong> Yup'ik, nouns have both subject and \object" agreement markers. 4Thus the hypothesis under which (23) illustrates the only position for AGR<strong>in</strong> the noun phrase is empirically <strong>in</strong>adequate, and we are forced to assumean In-like position <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase.Let us beg<strong>in</strong>, then, by consider<strong>in</strong>g the facts from Yup'ik <strong>in</strong> more detail.4 <strong>The</strong> \object" agreement is not agreement with an actual object I have called it\object" agreement because it is morphologically identical to object agreement <strong>in</strong> thesentence. See immediately below, section 2.1.


28 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE2.1 Yup'ikYup'ik, a Central Alaskan Eskimo language, provides a textbook exampleof a language with AGR <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase. <strong>Noun</strong>s|even concretenouns|agree with their possessors. <strong>The</strong> agreement they show is the sameagreement morpheme which is found on the verb, shar<strong>in</strong>g even the samesuppletions. Furthermore, the subject of the noun phrase takes ergativecase, the case of subjects of transitive verbs: 5(24) angute-m kiputa-a-man-ERG buy-OM-SM\the man bought it"angute-t kiputa-a-t \the men (pl.) bought it"angute-k kiputa-a-k \the men (du.) bought it"angute-m kuiga-man-ERG river-SM\the man's river"angute-t kuiga-t \the men's (pl.) river"angute-k kuiga-k \the men's (du.) river"<strong>The</strong> parallelism <strong>in</strong> agreement and Case-assignment is immediately accountedfor if we assume parallel structures:(25) ____IP/ |DP I'___| | \angutet I VP| |AGR V| |-t kiputaa-5 \SM" abbreviates \subject agreementmarker \OM" abbreviates \object agreementmarker".


2. INFL IN THE NOUN PHRASE 29(26) ____DP/ |DP D'___| | \angutet D NP| |AGR N| |-t kuiga-<strong>The</strong> lexical head, kiputaa- or kuiga-, raises to jo<strong>in</strong> to AGR, possibly at PF.On the other hand, there is a dierence between the two structures.Namely, the verb is agree<strong>in</strong>g with two arguments, whereas the noun hasonly one argument. This might suggest that the alternative to the DPanalysisillustrated <strong>in</strong> (23) is <strong>in</strong> fact correct. Suppose that a given headcan only agree with one argument (at d-structure head-rais<strong>in</strong>g may createelements conta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g multiple agreement markers after d-structure):(27) At d-structure, a head can bear at most one AGR elementWe could argue that In is necessary <strong>in</strong> the sentence because the verb hastwo arguments, and two AGR's, but it can only bear one of the AGR's<strong>its</strong>elf: hence the necessity of an In to bear the other AGR. <strong>The</strong> noun, onthe other hand, has only one AGR thus no noun-phrase In is necessary:(28) DP NP/ | / |DPi D'________ NPi N'| \ |D VP_____ N/ \ | \ / \D AGRi V DPj N AGRi| | / \ | | |e -t V AGRj pro kuiga- -t| |kiputa- -a-But under this analysis, it is curious that possessed nouns pattern morphologicallywith transitive verbs, rather than <strong>in</strong>transitive verbs. Unpossessednouns pattern with <strong>in</strong>transitive verbs:


30 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE(29) yurartuq- \(s)he dances"yurartu-t \they (pl.) dance"yurartu-k \they (du.) dance"arnaq-arna-tarna-k\a woman"\women (pl.)"\women (du.)"Despite the fact that unpossessed nouns have no argument, they bear an\agreement" marker, which encodes their own referential features (specifically,number). Morphologically, this \agreement" marker is identical tothat on the verb. Let us assume that it is <strong>in</strong> fact the same element, AGR.Tonowwehave made the implicit assumption that AGR is licensed (looselyspeak<strong>in</strong>g) by bear<strong>in</strong>g an agreement relation to an argument. We now needto qualify that assumption:(30) AGR is licensed either (A) by bear<strong>in</strong>g the Agreement relation to anargument, or (B) by ax<strong>in</strong>g to the (semantic) head of an argumentReconsider possessed nouns now. Possessed nouns also show \own"agreement, and this agreement corresponds to object agreement<strong>in</strong>theverb:(31) angute-t kiputa-a-t \the men (pl.) bought it"angute-t kiputa-i-t \the men (pl.) bought them (pl.)"angute-k kiputa-k-t \the men (pl.) bought them (du.)" 6angute-t kuig-a-t \the men's (pl.) river"angute-t kuig-i-t \the men's (pl.) rivers (pl.)"angute-t kuig-k-t \the men's (pl.) rivers (du.)"Thus the orig<strong>in</strong>al structure given for the noun phrase <strong>in</strong> (26) should berevised, not to (28), but to the follow<strong>in</strong>g:(32) _______DP/ |DPi D'________| | \angutet D NP/ \ |D AGRi Nj| / \-t Nj AGRj| |kuig- -a6 -k-t suppletes to -gket.


2. INFL IN THE NOUN PHRASE 312.2 MayanA similar paradigm is found <strong>in</strong> Mayan. I illustrate with data from Tzutujil,drawn from Dayley 1985.Tzutujil lacks case mark<strong>in</strong>g, but <strong>its</strong> agreement follows an ergative/absolutivepattern, <strong>in</strong> that the subject agreement marker for <strong>in</strong>transitiveverbs is identicalto the object agreement marker for transitive verbs. For example,(33) x-oq-wari aspect-1pOM-sleep `we slept'x-ix-wari -2pOM- `you (pl.) slept'x-ee-wari -3pOM- `they slept'x-ix-qa-kunaaj aspect-2pOM-1pSM-cure `we cured you (pl.)'x--e-kunaaj -3sOM-2pSM- `you (pl.) cured him'x-ee-ki-kuunaaj -3pOM-3pSM- `they cured them'In the Mayan literature, the \ergative" agreement markers (which Ihavelabelled \SM") are called Type A, and the \absolutive" markers (\OM")Type B. <strong>The</strong> full paradigm is:(34) B (abs/OM) A (erg/SM)<strong>in</strong>-nuuat-aa-- ruuoq-qaix-eeee-kee-(Ki- is an alternant ofkee-.)<strong>Noun</strong>s agree with their possessors, and the agreement marker they takeis the \ergative" marker (SM):(35) qa-tza7n `our nose'ee-tza7n `your (pl.) nose'kee-tza7n `their nose'As <strong>in</strong> Yup'ik, we cancharacterize the Type A AGR as AGR associatedwith a functional category|I or D|and the Type B AGR as AGRassociated with lexical categories. Tzutujil diers from Yup'ik only <strong>in</strong> thatTzutujil does not use Type B AGR as \own" AGR on the noun.


2. INFL IN THE NOUN PHRASE 33DPDP/ \ / \D' POSSR D' POSSR/ \ / \D NP NP D<strong>The</strong> two orders that are excluded are those <strong>in</strong> which the Possessor appearsbetween determ<strong>in</strong>er and noun, exactly as <strong>in</strong> (36).Szabolcsi notes that az is eccentric <strong>in</strong> <strong>its</strong> position, however. All otherdeterm<strong>in</strong>ers appear where we would expect them:(38) Peter m<strong>in</strong>den kalapja \Peter's every hat"Peter ezen kalapja \Peter's this hat"Peter melyik kalapja \Peter's which hat"Szabolcsi argues that az, unlike the other determ<strong>in</strong>ers, is not a noun-phraseIn, but a noun-phrase Complementizer: she argues that the noun phrase<strong>in</strong> Hungarian parallels the sentence <strong>in</strong> structure not only <strong>in</strong> possess<strong>in</strong>g anInectional head, but also <strong>in</strong> possess<strong>in</strong>g a nom<strong>in</strong>al Complementizer projectionbeyond that.I will not consider this extension of the basic idea of noun-phrase/sentenceparallelism <strong>in</strong> any detail, but I would like to briey exam<strong>in</strong>e the facts. S<strong>in</strong>cethere are also facts from Greek which bear on the question, I will devote aseparate section to it. <strong>The</strong> question of the position of lexical determ<strong>in</strong>ers<strong>in</strong> Hungarian I take up aga<strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong> section IV-1.1.c.2.4 Digression: Comp <strong>in</strong> the <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong>Szabolcsi po<strong>in</strong>ts out that there is a second k<strong>in</strong>d of possessor <strong>in</strong> Hungarian,which takes dative case and precedes az:(39) Peter-nek a kalapjaPeter-DAT the hat\Peter's hat"This possessor diers from the nom<strong>in</strong>ative possessor <strong>in</strong> that it can be freelyextracted, whereas the nom<strong>in</strong>ative possessor cannot be extracted at all.Szabolcsi argues that the dierence between the two possessors is that thenom<strong>in</strong>ative possessor is the specier of a noun-phrase In, whereas the dativepossessor is the specier of a noun-phrase Comp. <strong>The</strong> dative possessorcan be extracted, and still properly govern <strong>its</strong> trace, whereas the trace ofthe nom<strong>in</strong>ative possessor is too deep <strong>in</strong>side the noun phrase to be properlygoverned from outside.


34 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCEHorrocks & Stavrou (1985) also argue for a Comp \escape hatch" <strong>in</strong>modern Greek, though not on the basis of a dative possessor. Horrocks &Stavrou note that many extractions from noun phrase that are ungrammatical<strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong> are good <strong>in</strong> Greek:(40) pyon i akuses [t i mi [t i oti [apelisan t i ]]]who hear-2s the story that dismiss-3p*who did you hear [the story [that they dismissed t]][to kok<strong>in</strong>o] i mu ipes pos aghorases [t i to forema t i ]the red me-dat said-2s how bought-2s the dress*the red you told me that you bought thet dressHe correlates this with the fact that there is a \topic" position <strong>in</strong> the nounphrase <strong>in</strong> Greek:(41) a. to vivlio [tu Chomsky]the book [the-gen Chomsky]\Chomsky's book"to endhiaferon [ya to arthro afto]the <strong>in</strong>terest [<strong>in</strong> the article this]\the <strong>in</strong>terest <strong>in</strong> this article"to forema [to kok<strong>in</strong>o]the dress [the red]\the red dress"b. [[tu Chomsky] i [to vivlio t i ]]\Chomsky's book"[[ya to arthro afto] i [to endhiaron t i ]]\the <strong>in</strong>terest <strong>in</strong> this article"[[to kok<strong>in</strong>o] i [to forema t i ]]\the red dress"He claims that this topic position is the specier of a noun-phrase Comp(K), which also serves as an escape hatch for extraction out of noun phrase<strong>in</strong> Greek:(42) [to kok<strong>in</strong>o] i mu ipes pos aghorases [ KP t i [ DP to forema t i ]]If Horrocks & Stavrou's and Szabolcsi's claim that there is a nounphraseComp can be veried|and the evidence, at least on the cursory


2. INFL IN THE NOUN PHRASE 35exam<strong>in</strong>ation we have given it, seems to <strong>in</strong>dicate so|it constitutes a strongcase that the noun phrase and sentence are parallel <strong>in</strong> possess<strong>in</strong>g functionalheads, and bolsters the more modest proposal which I wish to defend,namely, that there is a noun-phrase equivalent of In.2.5 TurkishTurkish also shows an agreement element on possessed nouns, even on concretenouns. Consider the follow<strong>in</strong>g examples (from Underhill (1976)):(43) a. el\the/a hand"b. (sen-<strong>in</strong>) el-<strong>in</strong>you-GEN hand-2s\your hand"c. (on-un) el-ihe-GEN hand-3s\his hand"In Turkish, the possessor has genitive case, not nom<strong>in</strong>ative or ergative.Also, the agreement paradigm diers from that found on matrix verbs. <strong>The</strong>paradigms are:(44) Verbal: Nom<strong>in</strong>al:1s -(y)Im 1s -Im2s -sIn 2s -In3s (-DIr) 3s -(s)I(n)1p -(y)Iz 1p -ImIz2p -sInIz 2p -InIz3p (-DIr)(lEr) 3p -lErI(n)(<strong>The</strong> capitalized vowels are specied only [H] their other features arelled <strong>in</strong> by a process of vowel harmony. <strong>The</strong> capitalized \D" is a dentalstop unspecied for voic<strong>in</strong>g.)If nom<strong>in</strong>al AGR diers from verbal AGR <strong>in</strong> Turkish <strong>in</strong> <strong>its</strong> morphologicalform, and <strong>in</strong> the Case it assigns, it nonetheless behaves like a true AGR <strong>in</strong>that it licenses pro-drop. (In fact, though we have not mentioned it to now,the nom<strong>in</strong>al and verbal AGR's <strong>in</strong> all the languages we have discussed tonow license pro-drop. This is not a necessary property ofAGR, but it is atypical property, cross-l<strong>in</strong>guistically.) Kornlt (1984) shows carefully that


36 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCEthe noun phrases <strong>in</strong> Turkish that can be pro-dropped are all and only thosewhose features are marked by either nom<strong>in</strong>al or verbal AGR: i.e., subjectof the sentence, possessor, and object of certa<strong>in</strong> postpositions. 8 Thoughother arguments can be dropped, they cannot be dropped freely, but onlyunder restrictive discourse conditions. Kornlt argues that pro-drop is not<strong>in</strong>volved <strong>in</strong> such cases.Kornlt also shows that nom<strong>in</strong>al AGR assigns genitive case. For example,the two aremutually dependent: a noun phrase cannot bear genitivecase unless it agrees with a nom<strong>in</strong>al AGR, and if there is any overt nounphrase which agrees with a nom<strong>in</strong>al AGR, it must bear genitive Case:(45) a. pasta-nIn bir parca-sIcake-GEN a piece-3s\a piece of cake"b. pasta-dan bir parcacake-ABL a piece\a piece of cake"c. *pasta-nIn bir parcad. *pasta-dan/ bir parca-sITurkish also has <strong>English</strong>-type gerunds. In fact, all subord<strong>in</strong>ate clausesare gerundive. <strong>The</strong>re are two types, known <strong>in</strong> the literature as \verbalnoun" and \nom<strong>in</strong>alization". <strong>The</strong> verbal noun <strong>in</strong>volves the ax -mE/-mEk the nom<strong>in</strong>alization <strong>in</strong>volves the ax -DIg (non-future) or -(y)EcEg(future). <strong>The</strong>re is a dierence <strong>in</strong> mean<strong>in</strong>g, which Underhill characterizesas \action" (verbal noun) vs. \fact" (nom<strong>in</strong>alization). <strong>The</strong>ir syntax isvirtually the same, though: the nom<strong>in</strong>aliz<strong>in</strong>g morpheme is attached to theverb stem, after which nom<strong>in</strong>al suxes| nom<strong>in</strong>al AGR, case markers|canbe attached. <strong>The</strong> complements and adjuncts the nom<strong>in</strong>alized verb takes areidentical to those which ittakes as a matrix verb, with the exception thatthe subject appears <strong>in</strong> genitive case, not nom<strong>in</strong>ative case. Examples:8 <strong>The</strong>se postpositional phrases have the surface syntactic appearance of noun phrasesand possibly are to be analyzed as such: e.g. masa-nIn alt-I table-GEN under-3s \underthe table".


2. INFL IN THE NOUN PHRASE 37(46) a. i. Halil her dakika is-im-e karIs-IrHalil every m<strong>in</strong>ute bus<strong>in</strong>ess-1s-DAT <strong>in</strong>terfere-3s\Halil constantly <strong>in</strong>terferes <strong>in</strong> my bus<strong>in</strong>ess"ii. Halil'-<strong>in</strong> her dakika is-im-e karIs-ma-sIHalil-GEN every m<strong>in</strong>ute bus<strong>in</strong>ess-1s-DAT <strong>in</strong>terfere-ING-3s\Halil's constantly <strong>in</strong>terfer<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> my bus<strong>in</strong>ess"b. Halil'-<strong>in</strong> gel-di~g-<strong>in</strong>-i bil-iyor-umHalil-GEN come-ING-3s-ACC know-PROG-1s\I know that Halil is com<strong>in</strong>g"c. Kedi-ye yemek- ver-me-di~g-<strong>in</strong>iz do~gru mu?cat-DAT food-ACC give-NEG-ING-2p true Q\Is it true that you did not give food to the cat?"In (46c), for example, the verb give assigns the same array of cases it assigns<strong>in</strong> matrix sentences there are no underived nouns which take a comparablearray of arguments.Kornlt argues that AGR is the head of these embedded sentences: thattheir structure is exactly parallel to that of the non-embedded versions. Sheargues further that the structure extends to possessive noun phrases: they,too, are headed by the AGR which appears on the possessed noun andassigns genitive case to the possessor. She claims that possessive nounphrases and sentences are both IP. Under Kornlt's account, then, nonpossessivenoun phrases dier <strong>in</strong> syntactic category from possessive nounphrase, the former be<strong>in</strong>g NP, the latter IP. This problem can be elim<strong>in</strong>atedby assum<strong>in</strong>g exactly what wehave argued to now: sentence and noun phraseare both headed by <strong>in</strong>ectional elements, In <strong>in</strong> the sentence, D <strong>in</strong> the nounphrase. <strong>The</strong> dierence between possessed and non-possessed noun phrasesis the presence or absence of AGR, not a dierence of syntactic category.<strong>The</strong> Turkish facts are especially <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g for two reasons: they showthat, at least <strong>in</strong> some languages, there is an AGR <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase whichassigns Genitive case, po<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g the way toward an analysis <strong>in</strong> which thereis a similar, but abstract, AGR <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong> noun phrases and secondly, thePoss-<strong>in</strong>g type of gerund appears to be rare cross-l<strong>in</strong>guistically, but Turkishshows that it is not simply a quirk of <strong>English</strong>. I will have a great deal moreto say about the Poss-<strong>in</strong>g gerund <strong>in</strong> the Chapter III <strong>in</strong> III-4.3.b. and 6.2.b.I return briey to Turkish gerunds.


38 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE3 <strong>The</strong> DP-Analysis3.1 Concepts and Term<strong>in</strong>ologyIhave presented the essence of the position which I will defend <strong>in</strong> the restof this thesis: that the noun phrase is headed by an In-like category <strong>in</strong>many languages, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g <strong>English</strong>, and probably universally. Iwould liketo spell out my hypothesis carefully here, and dene my term<strong>in</strong>ology.3.1.a\Inectional" ElementsFirst, I have spoken of an \In-like" node, or an \Inectional element" <strong>in</strong>the noun phrase, without den<strong>in</strong>g precisely what I mean. I consider thenode In to be typical of a class of elements, that I have elsewhere calledfunctional elements,<strong>in</strong>contrast with thematic elements. 9 <strong>The</strong>y are typicallycalled \non-lexical categories" I resist this designation because I assumethat complementizers and modals, etc., have lexical entries like any otherword. <strong>The</strong> two uncontroversial functional elements are Complementizerand Inection.<strong>The</strong> primary property of functional elements is this: they select a uniquecomplement, which is not plausibly either an argument or an adjunct ofthe functional element. C selects IP, and I selects VP. CandIdonottake typical arguments (noun phrases, prepositional phrases, subord<strong>in</strong>ateclauses), not even as an option. C and I do not take multiple arguments,but only one IP, oroneVP, respectively. And semantically, at least onan <strong>in</strong>tuitive level, C and I contrast with N, V, A, etc., <strong>in</strong> that they donot describe a dist<strong>in</strong>ct object from that described by their complement.In That John hit the ball, for <strong>in</strong>stance, the VP hit the ball (<strong>in</strong>tuitively)describes an act of hitt<strong>in</strong>g, the IP John hit the ball describes an act ofhitt<strong>in</strong>g, and the CP that John hit the ball also describes an act of hitt<strong>in</strong>g.This <strong>in</strong>tuition is a major motivation for the cont<strong>in</strong>u<strong>in</strong>g debate over whetherV is not actually the head of the sentence. In the \pass<strong>in</strong>g on" of thedescriptive content of their complements, functional heads contrast withthematic heads. <strong>The</strong> noun phrase the ball describes a ball when that nounphrase is the complement ofaverb, as <strong>in</strong> hit the ball, the VP emphaticallydoes not describe a ball, but an action <strong>in</strong> this case, an act of hitt<strong>in</strong>g.We see, then, that the relation between a functional element and <strong>its</strong>complement, and the relation between a thematic element and <strong>its</strong> complement,contrast starkly. I assume that there are syntactic relations betweenall heads and their complements or adjuncts, by which those complementsand adjuncts are licensed| a m<strong>in</strong>imal condition on a well-formed syntactic9 Abney (1986).


3. THE DP-ANALYSIS 39structure is that every node be licensed by some such relation. <strong>The</strong>se relationsdivide <strong>in</strong>to two classes: thematic relations, on the one hand, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>gat least -assignment and the relation by which adjuncts are licensed (thereis no concensus about what precisely that relation is) and functional selection,or f-selection, on the other hand. <strong>The</strong> syntactic relation betweena functional element and <strong>its</strong> complement is f-selection. F-selection correspondssemantically to the \pass<strong>in</strong>g on" of the descriptive content of thecomplement. <strong>The</strong> relation between a non-functional element and <strong>its</strong> complementis a thematic relation for this reason, I call non-functional elements\thematic" elements. I dist<strong>in</strong>guish functional elements from thematic elementsby means of the syntactic category feature [F]. Functional elementsare [+F], thematic elements are [-F].<strong>The</strong>re are a large number of properties that typify the functional elements,<strong>in</strong> contrast with the thematic elements, and justify our treatmentof them as a natural class. I will discuss these properties <strong>in</strong> the next section.I would like topo<strong>in</strong>t out here that these additional properties donot dene the class of functional elements functional elements are denedas those elements which possess the feature [+F]. <strong>The</strong>re are atypical functionalelements, just as there are atypical elements with<strong>in</strong> virtually everygrammatical category. This does not call <strong>in</strong>to question the existence of theclasses, it only means that <strong>in</strong> some cases, it is dicult to decide how toclassify a particular item.3.1.bC-Projection and S-Projection<strong>The</strong> dist<strong>in</strong>ction between f-selection and thematic relations allows us to capturethe <strong>in</strong>tuition that the verb is the head of the sentence, without suppos<strong>in</strong>gliterally that S = VP. Let us dist<strong>in</strong>guish two notions of projection,whichwemay call c-projection (\category projection", i.e., \syntactic" projection)and s-projection (\semantic" projection). (<strong>The</strong>se designations areof course modelled on Pesetsky's (1982) \c-selection" and \s-selection".) Anode's c-projection is <strong>its</strong> syntactic projection <strong>in</strong> the usual sense: the maximalc-projection of V is VP, IIP, and C CP. A node's s-projection path isthe path of nodes along which <strong>its</strong> descriptive content is \passed along". <strong>The</strong>maximal s-projection of V is CP, via IP likewise the maximal s-projectionofIisCP, and the maximal s-projection of C is CP. Formally:(47) is an s-projection of ia. = , orb. is a c-projection of an s-projection of , orc. f-selects an s-projection of


40 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCETo illustrate graphically, the c-projection set of the lower V is circled <strong>in</strong>(48a), and <strong>its</strong> s-projection set is circled <strong>in</strong> (48b):(48)3.1.c\D" vs. \Det"Return<strong>in</strong>g to the noun phrase, what it means to propose an \In-like" nodeas head is that there is a functional element, a [+F] category, which headsthe noun phrase. I have designated this category D, and will cont<strong>in</strong>ue todo so, but I must stress that the existence of a functional head of the nounphrase, and the question whether the determ<strong>in</strong>er is the head of the nounphrase, are two separate questions. Except <strong>in</strong> a handful of passages, I willbe concerned only with the former question| whether there is a functionalhead of the noun phrase|<strong>in</strong> this chapter and the next. In Chapter Four Iturn to the second question: whether or not determ<strong>in</strong>ers are lexical itemsof category D, the way modals are items of category I.It is easy to conate the two issues. <strong>The</strong> In node is the site of both lexical\In's"|i.e., modals|and of AGR. This correspondence is not necessary,however. An account <strong>in</strong> which there were no <strong>in</strong>dependent morphemesof syntactic category In would not be <strong>in</strong>coherent. As it happens, thereis some evidence that modals are of category In: they are <strong>in</strong> contrastivedistribution with overt AGR (i.e., only when a modal is present do niteverbs fail to mark agreement with the subject) they are <strong>in</strong> contrastive distributionwith <strong>in</strong>nitival to (which is <strong>its</strong>elf <strong>in</strong> contrastive distribution withAGR, overt or non-overt). It is an open question whether similar evidencecan be produced to support the claim that lexical determ<strong>in</strong>ers occupy the


3. THE DP-ANALYSIS 41same position as AGR <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase (assum<strong>in</strong>g there is an AGR <strong>in</strong>the noun phrase).For the purposes of the next two chapters, then, the designation \D"is entirely arbitrary it is a hypothetical syntactic category which is[+F],but dist<strong>in</strong>guished from In and Comp <strong>in</strong> that it belongs to the nom<strong>in</strong>alsystem, not the verbal system: i.e., D is [+N,+F], whereas In and Compare [-N,+F]. D is the site of AGR <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase. By \Determ<strong>in</strong>er", onthe other hand, I mean the lexical determ<strong>in</strong>ers, leav<strong>in</strong>g open the questionwhether <strong>in</strong> fact D = Determ<strong>in</strong>er. \Det" is synonymous with \Determ<strong>in</strong>er".A few more notes on term<strong>in</strong>ology: under the DP-analysis, the nounphrase is DP, not NP. DP is subject to the Case Filter and -Criterion DPundergoes Passive and Wh-Movement, leav<strong>in</strong>g beh<strong>in</strong>d DP-traces. When Iwrite \NP", I mean the maximal (c-)projection of N. NP under the DPanalysiscorresponds to N <strong>in</strong> the standard analysis. I never use \NP" simplyas an abbreviation for \noun phrase" <strong>in</strong> a pretheoretic sense. When I wishto refer to the noun phrase, without presuppos<strong>in</strong>g an analysis, I alwayswrite out \noun phrase": this refers to DP, under the DP-analysis, andNP, under the standard analysis.3.1.dSyntactic FeaturesIwould like to conclude this section by spell<strong>in</strong>g out my assumptions aboutthe feature composition of syntactic categories <strong>in</strong> a little more detail.Anticipat<strong>in</strong>g conclusions of later chapters, let us take the noun-verbdist<strong>in</strong>ction to be the most fundamental categorial dist<strong>in</strong>ction adjectivesclearly group with nouns <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong> (though not <strong>in</strong> all languages) prepositionsless clearly group with verbs, but probably so. Adher<strong>in</strong>g to standardnotation, the feature that captures the noun-verb dichotomy isthus [N].I am not persuaded that adjectives and verbs have someth<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> commonthat nouns and prepositions lack, however, <strong>in</strong> the way that they are groupedby the feature [V]. Certa<strong>in</strong>ly the adjective-verb vs. noun-preposition dichotomyis<strong>in</strong>noway on a par with the noun vs. verb or functional vs.thematic dichotomies. <strong>The</strong>re are two major motivations for hav<strong>in</strong>g the feature[V]: (1) to predict that there are four major syntactic categories,when taken <strong>in</strong> conjunction with [N], and (2) to permit a treatment ofpassive participles as unspecied for [V].As concerns the second po<strong>in</strong>t, <strong>in</strong> section III-6.3 I argue for a very differentview of passive participles, which replaces any need for consider<strong>in</strong>gpassive participles to be verb-adjective hybrids, unspecied for [V].As concerns the rst po<strong>in</strong>t, there are <strong>in</strong> fact clearly many more syntacticcategories than N, V, A, and P <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>. We can also add at least Q,Adv, Det, In, Comp, Conj. And A and P are not so major that they


42 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCEappear <strong>in</strong> all languages. Some languages lack <strong>English</strong>-type adjectives, ornearly so (Swahili is a famous example). Other languages appear to lacka separate class of adpositions, us<strong>in</strong>g nouns <strong>in</strong>stead (the Mayan languages,for <strong>in</strong>stance).Further, there are two dist<strong>in</strong>ct categories, with very dierent syntacticproperties, which meet notional criteria of adjective-hood (i.e., they typicallydenote physical attributes, emotional states, etc.). In some languages,\adjectives" (<strong>in</strong> the notional sense) are syntactically very similar to|evena subcategory of|verbs <strong>in</strong> other languages they behave syntactically likenouns. Many languages have both syntactic types, with a preponderanceof one or the other. 10 It appears, then, that there are at least two syntacticcategories that are notionally adjectives, one essentially nom<strong>in</strong>al ([+N]),as <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>, and one essentially verbal ([-N]). If so, and if both syntactictypes of adjective constitute major categories, then we have ve majorcategories, not four.<strong>The</strong>se are my reasons for be<strong>in</strong>g skeptical of the standard [NV] categorytetrachotomy. I do not claim that I haveproven <strong>in</strong> this brief discussionthat there is no feature [V] nonetheless, I do not adopt it. I do assumenouns are dist<strong>in</strong>guished from adjectives, and prepositions are dist<strong>in</strong>guishedfrom verbs, but I do not assume that these two dist<strong>in</strong>ctions necessarily haveanyth<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> common.I assume two major features, [F], [N], which dene four major classesof syntactic categories. 11 I also assume that there are m<strong>in</strong>or features thatdist<strong>in</strong>guish subclasses of syntactic categories, but I will not argue here fora particular set of m<strong>in</strong>or features. Unless a given m<strong>in</strong>or feature cuts acrossmajor syntactic-category classes, the question of the identity of the m<strong>in</strong>orfeatures is not very <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g. (A candidate for a m<strong>in</strong>or feature whichcuts across major syntactic-category classes is that which dist<strong>in</strong>guishesnouns and adjectives. In section IV-3, I exam<strong>in</strong>e the possibility that thisfeature also dist<strong>in</strong>guishes between ma<strong>in</strong> verbs and auxiliaries: i.e., thatN:A::V:Aux.)<strong>The</strong> four major classes of syntactic categories are as follows:10 See Dixon (1982) for a detailed notional characterization of \adjective" and a surveyof language types with regard to the syntactic expression of \adjective" notions.11 I do not assume that categories are necessarily dened by their feature compositions.I assume that features dene classes of categories, but I leave open the question whetherit is possible for two categories to have all feature specications <strong>in</strong> common, yet rema<strong>in</strong>dist<strong>in</strong>ct categories.


3. THE DP-ANALYSIS 43(49) [-F] [+F][-N] V, Aux, P(?) I, C[+N] N, A, Q, Adv D<strong>The</strong>se classes appear not to be exhaustive. For example, conjunctions likeand, or, appear to be [+F], but unspecied for [N]: they appear equallyfreely <strong>in</strong> both nom<strong>in</strong>al and verbal systems. Likewise, P seems to straddlethe l<strong>in</strong>e between functional and thematic elements one might wish to treatit as unspecied for [F].3.2 Functional SelectionIn this section, I would like to consider the properties of functional categories<strong>in</strong> more detail.<strong>The</strong> dist<strong>in</strong>ction between thematic and functional categories is a veryvenerable one. Aristotle, <strong>in</strong> his Poetics, makes a major category cut betweencomplementizers, conjunctions, etc., on the one hand, and nouns, verbs,and adjectives, on the other. <strong>The</strong> traditional Japanese grammarian, AkiraSuzuki, <strong>in</strong> his Gengyo Yonsyu-Ron (\On Four Parts of Speech": 1824),dist<strong>in</strong>guishes four syntactic categories: noun, verb, adjective, and particles(case markers, auxiliary verbs, etc.). <strong>The</strong> rst three are si, the last, zi. 12<strong>The</strong> dist<strong>in</strong>ction between functional and thematic elements is also important<strong>in</strong>psychology. Children acquire functional elements later than thematicelements. Also, <strong>in</strong> certa<strong>in</strong> aphasias, the ability to process functionalelements is lost, while the ability to use and understand thematic elementssurvives.<strong>The</strong>re are a number of properties that characterize functional elements,<strong>in</strong> contradist<strong>in</strong>ction to thematic elements. Like all major grammatical dist<strong>in</strong>ctions,there is a substantial gray areabetween thematic and functionalelements there are thematic elements with some properties of functionalelements, and vice versa, and some items that are very dicult to categorizeat all. Thisdoesnotnullify the dist<strong>in</strong>ction, however. And eventhough none of the follow<strong>in</strong>g properties are criterial for classication as afunctional element, that does not mean that it is false or naive to ascribethese properties to the class of functional elements. <strong>The</strong> properties whichcharacterize functional elements, then, are:1. Functional elements constitute closed lexical classes.12 My source on Suzuki is Mak<strong>in</strong>o (1968).


44 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE2. Functional elements are generally phonologically and morphologicallydependent. <strong>The</strong>y are generally stressless, often clitics or axes, andsometimes even phonologically null.3. Functional elements permit only one complement, which is <strong>in</strong> generalnot an argument. <strong>The</strong> arguments are CP, PP, and (I claim) DP.Functional elements select IP, VP,NP.4. Functional elements are usually <strong>in</strong>separable from their complement.5. Functional elements lack what I will call \descriptive content". <strong>The</strong>irsemantic contribution is second-order, regulat<strong>in</strong>g or contribut<strong>in</strong>g tothe <strong>in</strong>terpretation of their complement. <strong>The</strong>y mark grammatical orrelational features, rather than pick<strong>in</strong>g out a class of objects.<strong>The</strong> nal characteristic, concern<strong>in</strong>g the semantics of functional elements,is <strong>in</strong> some sense the crucial characteristic. It is the property consistentlychosen by traditional grammarians to characterize functional elements.Aristotle denes functional elements simply as \words withoutmean<strong>in</strong>g", <strong>in</strong> contrast to thematic elements, \words with mean<strong>in</strong>g". ForSuzuki, the rst property ofasi (thematic element) is that \it denotessometh<strong>in</strong>g" the rst property ofazi is that \it denotes noth<strong>in</strong>g it onlyattaches `voice of heart' to si" (quoted <strong>in</strong> Mak<strong>in</strong>o (1968:12)).\Descriptive content"|what functional elements lack|is a phrase's l<strong>in</strong>kto the world. If someone utters the word \ball", and there is a ball <strong>in</strong> view,the default assumption is that that ball is be<strong>in</strong>g described by the utterance.This is the sense <strong>in</strong> which the noun ball has descriptive content. Verbs alsohave descriptive content <strong>in</strong> this sense. For <strong>in</strong>stance, if John h<strong>its</strong> Bill, andthe word \hit" is uttered, it is clear what action is be<strong>in</strong>g described. Onthe other hand, with the utterance of a functional element|say, the modalwill, or the complementizer if|it is not possible to pick out some bit of theworld <strong>in</strong> the same way. Words with immediacy and concreteness are thosewith descriptive content they are the words that survive when language isreduced to bare bones, as when one is attempt<strong>in</strong>g to communicate with anon-speaker of one's language.More formally, thematic elements are roughly those which denote apredicate of type he ti (i.e., functions from entities to truth values: rstorderpredicates). This is uncontroversial with regard to common nouns.Verbs, however, are not usually considered to be exclusively s<strong>in</strong>gle-placepredicates. Under most accounts, there are at least transitive verbs of typehe he tii, <strong>in</strong> addition to <strong>in</strong>transitives. 13 My characterization of thematicelements as those with he ti denotations can be ma<strong>in</strong>ta<strong>in</strong>ed, though, if we13 On the other hand, predicates of type he he tii (and he he he tiii, etc.) are rst-


3. THE DP-ANALYSIS 45adopt a somewhat extreme form of Davidson's event semantics. Let usassume that, as <strong>in</strong> my <strong>in</strong>formal discussion, verbs are s<strong>in</strong>gle-place predicatesover events. 14 Hit, for example, does not denote x y(x hit y), noreven e x y(e is/was an event ofx hitt<strong>in</strong>g y) (as Higg<strong>in</strong>botham (1986b)assumes), but rather e(e is/was an event of hitt<strong>in</strong>g). For thematic elements,then, this view <strong>in</strong>volves a complete divorc<strong>in</strong>g of semantic argumentsand syntactic arguments. No syntactic argument ofaverb is a semanticargument of it. Syntactic arguments (e.g., agent, patient) are related to theverb via -roles| functions from events to objects. For example, the VPhitaboy would have the denotation e(e is/was an event of hitt<strong>in</strong>g & 9x[boy(x) &Patient(e) =x]). I take -assignment to be a 3-place syntacticrelation, hold<strong>in</strong>g among a -assigner, a -receiver, and a -role. In general,the denotation of any phrase-marker of the form [ a b c], where <strong>The</strong>ta(b,c,),is e([[b]](e) &(e) =[[c]]). 15In contrast to thematic elements, functional elements take predicatesas arguments: they are functors. Follow<strong>in</strong>g Higg<strong>in</strong>botham (1985), we mayassume that In is an existential quantier over predicates of events. <strong>The</strong>denotation of an I-bar [I VP] is true i 9e([[VP]](e)). In similar fashion, determ<strong>in</strong>erstake two predicates as arguments the characterization of determ<strong>in</strong>ers(specically, quanticational determ<strong>in</strong>ers) as relations between setsis from Barwise and Cooper (1981), cf. Higg<strong>in</strong>botham & May (1980). <strong>The</strong>denotation of the noun phrase the boy, for <strong>in</strong>stance, is X[X \ ^y(boy 0 (y)) =^y(boy 0 (y))], if j^y(boy 0 (y))j = 1, undened otherwise.3.3 Two Notions of CommandBefore I turn to a prelim<strong>in</strong>ary consideration of the \second half" of theDP hypothesis|i.e., that determ<strong>in</strong>ers occupy the position of D|I wouldlike to discuss one advantage that accrues to the DP hypothesis simpliciter.<strong>The</strong> DP-analysis allows us to re-unify the notion of c-command. For mostpurposes, the denition of c-command which is required is one <strong>in</strong> whichthe c-doma<strong>in</strong> of a node is the rst maximal category which dom<strong>in</strong>ates thatnode. But with respect to b<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase, a simplied versionof Re<strong>in</strong>hart's (1978) orig<strong>in</strong>al \branch<strong>in</strong>g node" denition is necessary.order predicates, <strong>in</strong> contrast with e.g. determ<strong>in</strong>ers, which are of type hhe ti hhe titii:i.e., which take predicates as arguments. If one nds objectionable the extension ofDavidson's ideas I present immediately below <strong>in</strong> the text, thematic and functional elementscan still be dist<strong>in</strong>guished as rst-order vs. second-order predicates.14 In a very broad sense of \event", which means someth<strong>in</strong>g closer to \situation" than\event" <strong>in</strong> the usual sense. In particular, I assume that stative verbs and the like denoteevents, <strong>in</strong> the <strong>in</strong>tended sense of \event".15 <strong>The</strong>re are a number of matters I am gloss<strong>in</strong>g over. I give a formal, and much moredetailed, account <strong>in</strong> Abney (<strong>in</strong> preparation).


46 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCEConsider the noun phrases of (50).(50) a. [ picture of himself]b. <strong>The</strong> city's [ destruction t ]c. His [ picture of himself]d. Its [ destruction t ]e. *Himself's [ picture of himself]f. *Himself's [ destruction t]If we assume the \maximal category" denition of c-command, and assumethat is not maximal, the subject and object positions mutuallyc-command. So we would expect that (a), John's picture of himself, wouldviolate Condition C of the b<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g theory, as the r-expression John is c-commanded and bound by himself. Similarly, his picture of himself shouldviolate Condition B, and (e) and (f) should arguably be good, with eachanaphor b<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g the other. For this reason, Chomsky 1986a adopts twocommand relations: c-command, with the \branch<strong>in</strong>g node" denition, andm-command, with the \maximal category" denition. We can avoid thisduplication of relations by suppos<strong>in</strong>g, as <strong>in</strong> the DP-analysis, that is <strong>in</strong>fact maximal. <strong>The</strong>n a noun's complement would fail to m-command <strong>its</strong>subject, as desired.It is conceptually disagreeable to have one general notion of command|m-command|and another special notion of command for b<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g theory,solely to be able to account for b<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase. But mattersare <strong>in</strong> fact worse than this. Consider aga<strong>in</strong> these adjunct control examplesfrom section 1:(51) a. John criticized Bill j after his j talkJohn's criticism of Bill j after his j talkb. *John criticized Bill j after PRO j talk<strong>in</strong>g*John's criticism of Bill j after PRO j talk<strong>in</strong>gWe can account for this paradigm if we assume that the after adjunct isattached high enough that the co<strong>in</strong>dexed elements, Bill and his, orBill andPRO, do not c-command each other. This does not prevent the pronounfrom tak<strong>in</strong>g Bill as antecedent, but it does block control of PRO by Bill(51b). Control of PRO is possible only when the antecedent c-commandsPRO.Under the standard analysis, this entails that c-command, not m-command,is the requisite notion of command, <strong>in</strong>asmuch aswe can attach the afteradjunct no higher than daughter of NP, <strong>in</strong>which case the only node <strong>in</strong>terven<strong>in</strong>gbetween Bill and PRO is N-bar.


3. THE DP-ANALYSIS 47This is problematic because it would predict that it would be impossiblefor a direct object of a verbtocontrol an adjunct with<strong>in</strong> VP. In the structure(52), NP does not c-command IP hence control should be blocked:(52) VP/ \V' IP/ \V NPBut there is reason to believe that control is <strong>in</strong> fact not blocked <strong>in</strong> thisconguration. Consider the follow<strong>in</strong>g examples:(53) a. I i gave the gun to Mugsy j PRO i to get rid of itb. I i gave the gun to Mugsy j PRO j to get rid of itc. *I i gave the gun to Mugsy j PRO i to get rid ofd. I i gave the gun to Mugsy j PRO j to get rid ofWe can account for this paradigm by assum<strong>in</strong>g there must be mutual c-command between the controller and the adjunct. When there is no operator,the adjunct can attach either under IP (53a) or under VP (53b), withcorrespond<strong>in</strong>g dierences <strong>in</strong> the identity of the controller. When the objectposition is bound by an empty operator, on the other hand, there must bemutual c-command between the adjunct and the antecedent of the emptyoperator, viz., the gun. Hence, only the VP attachment isavailable, and(53c) is ungrammatical.If the adjunct is under VP, however, it is still an adjunct, and for thatreason cannot be under V. Thus we are brought to the conclusion that(53b) and (53d) have the structure shown <strong>in</strong> (52), with control betweenthe object and the adjunct. This conclusion runs directly counter to thehypothesis that the subject-object assymetry <strong>in</strong> control <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase(51) is to be accounted for by attach<strong>in</strong>g the adjunct outside N. It is perfectlycompatible with the DP-analysis, however, where the uniform denition ofcommand is <strong>in</strong> terms of maximal projections, and \N", but not V, is amaximal projection.3.4 Det as HeadIn this section, I would like to consider, <strong>in</strong> a prelim<strong>in</strong>ary way, the hypothesisthat the determ<strong>in</strong>er is the lexical <strong>in</strong>stantiation of D.<strong>The</strong> primary motivation for putt<strong>in</strong>g determ<strong>in</strong>ers <strong>in</strong> the position of D isto allow ustoma<strong>in</strong>ta<strong>in</strong> a general, restrictive version of X-bar theory. First,


3. THE DP-ANALYSIS 49(57)This would put Det(P) on a par with adjective phrases. Determ<strong>in</strong>ers dierfrom adjectives <strong>in</strong> importantways, however. Adjectives, even <strong>in</strong> prenom<strong>in</strong>alposition, clearly head full phrases, as is evident from the fact that they taketheir own speciers:(58) a[ AP nearly as devastat<strong>in</strong>g] attackDetP never conta<strong>in</strong>s any material except Det. Correspond<strong>in</strong>g to this, AP'sappear <strong>in</strong> positions other than the prenom<strong>in</strong>al position: postnom<strong>in</strong>ally, ascomplement ofbe, seem, etc., as heads of small clauses. Some Det's neverappear outside of the noun phrase|e.g. the, a|and others, when theystand alone, behave exactly like noun phrases:(59) [ DetP that] was a nice ideaIwould like [ DetP some]John thought about[ DetP those]This last fact suggests that DetP <strong>in</strong> fact is the noun phrase. This leadsus to a third hypothesis, that Det selects a projection of N, not vice versa:(60)In this case, there is a ready model for the relation between Det and NP,namely, f-selection. Det has all the properties of a functional element. Itconstitutes a closed lexical class, it is often phonologically weak, and <strong>in</strong>separablefrom <strong>its</strong> \complement" (e.g., the and a), and it lacks \descriptivecontent". If Det belongs to the same class of elements as Comp and In|asit certa<strong>in</strong>ly appears to|the m<strong>in</strong>imal assumption is that it is licensed by thesame relation, viz., f-selection. 17 <strong>The</strong> analysis (60) allows us to account for17 I am be<strong>in</strong>g a little sloppy here<strong>in</strong>my use of the word \license". Technically, Detisnot licensed by NP under the analysis (60) rather, NP is licensed by Det. Det is licensedby be<strong>in</strong>g the head of DetP, whichisnow the noun phrase, and licensed <strong>in</strong> the ways thatwe have always assumed noun phrases are licensed. Det is \licensed" by f-selection only<strong>in</strong> the sense that the analysis (60) provides a place for Det <strong>in</strong> the network of licens<strong>in</strong>grelations.


50 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCEthe licens<strong>in</strong>g of Det without <strong>in</strong>vent<strong>in</strong>g a new k<strong>in</strong>d of relation the licens<strong>in</strong>gof Det generalizes with that of In and Comp.<strong>The</strong>re are further X-bar theoretic considerations that make the Detas-headanalysis attractive. First, D is no longer defective with respectto X-theory, but projects a phrasal node, and takes a complement, likeother categories. This is <strong>in</strong> keep<strong>in</strong>g with the analysis of I and C which hasemerged <strong>in</strong> recent years (see Chomsky 1981, Stowell 1981, Chomsky 1986a),<strong>in</strong> which IandCaretaken to participate fully <strong>in</strong> the X system. In fact, theDet-as-head analysis is almost forced if we wish to suppose generally that\non-lexical" categories are not defective with respect to X-bar theory.Another X-bar theoretic advantage of the Det-as-head analysis is thatdeterm<strong>in</strong>er and possessor no longer appear <strong>in</strong> the same position. <strong>The</strong>reis a tendency <strong>in</strong> current views of X-bar theory toward the position thatthere are X 0 positions, on the one hand, and X max positions, on the other,and the two are completely disjo<strong>in</strong>t. In the formulation of the X-schemagiven <strong>in</strong> Stowell 1981, the Spec position (like complement positions) canonly be lled with maximal projections, not X 0 's. An X 0 cannot ll anX max -position, and vice versa. This separation of X 0 and X max positionsis preserved and strengthened <strong>in</strong> Chomsky's recent work: an X max cansubstitute only <strong>in</strong>to an X max position, and an X max can adjo<strong>in</strong> only toan X max ,mutatis mutandis for X 0 . <strong>The</strong> Det-as-head analysis allows us toadopt this strong version of the Xschema, without confront<strong>in</strong>g us with theembarass<strong>in</strong>g question of why DetPnever conta<strong>in</strong>s any material except Det.With regard to complements and speciers, we nowhave avery symmetricsystem. Only functional categories (i.e., C, I, D) freely have (overt)subjects: 18 *[ IP (John) [ VP was Bill seen]], *[ DP (John's) [ NP Bill ('s)picture]]|if we assume that only functional categories can host AGR, thisfact is immediately accounted for. All and only subject positions are land<strong>in</strong>gsites for movement, where substitution is <strong>in</strong>volved: [ CP who [ IP Bill sawt]], [ IP Bill [ VP was seen t]], [ DP the city's [ NP destruction t]].Another factor which makes a parallel syntactic treatment of Det andIn attractive is their semantic similiarity. <strong>The</strong> function of the determ<strong>in</strong>eris to specify the reference of a noun phrase. <strong>The</strong> noun provides a predicate,and the determ<strong>in</strong>er picks out a particular member of that predicate's extension.<strong>The</strong> same function is performed <strong>in</strong> the verbal system by tense, orInection. <strong>The</strong> VP provides a predicate, that is, a class of events, and tenselocates a particular event <strong>in</strong> time. In Higg<strong>in</strong>botham's terms, In b<strong>in</strong>ds theVP's event place, <strong>in</strong> the same way that the Determ<strong>in</strong>er b<strong>in</strong>ds the open place<strong>in</strong> NP.18 <strong>The</strong> qualication \freely" is meant to exclude cases where ECM <strong>in</strong>to, say, SpecofAPor Spec of PP (under Stowell's (1981, 1982) account of small clauses) perm<strong>its</strong> subjectsto (exceptionally) appear <strong>in</strong> these categories.


3. THE DP-ANALYSIS 51Though the idea that the Determ<strong>in</strong>er is the head of the noun phraseseems rather odd at rst, the conceptual considerations I havejustsketchedmake it seem a very natural, even necessary development of current viewsof phrase structure. I will discuss the Det-as-head analysis <strong>in</strong> more detail<strong>in</strong> Chapter Four. I have <strong>in</strong>troduced it here because I will occasionally makereference to it <strong>in</strong> the rema<strong>in</strong>der of this chapter, and <strong>in</strong> the next.As a bibliographic note, I would also like topo<strong>in</strong>t out that the Detas-headanalysis, and the analysis <strong>in</strong> which there is an Inectional (i.e.,functional) head of the noun phrase, are also not so odd that others havenot thought of it before me. When I rst began explor<strong>in</strong>g the possibility,I thought it quite novel, but I have s<strong>in</strong>ce discovered comparable proposals<strong>in</strong> Brame 1981, 1982, Hale 1980, Hellan 1986, Horrocks & Stavrou 1985,Hudson 1984, Kornlt 1984, Kuroda 1986, Reuland 1985, Szabolcsi 1981,1984. For the most part, these authors appear to be unaware of each other'swork.<strong>The</strong> determ<strong>in</strong>er as head of the noun phrase is also, of course, a very wellestablishedtenet <strong>in</strong> the Montagovian semantic tradition (Montague 1974),and receives particular attention <strong>in</strong> the Generalized Quantier proposal ofBarwise & Cooper 1981, cf. Higg<strong>in</strong>botham & May 1980.3.5 <strong>The</strong> Position of 'sIn this section, I would like to consider how Case is assigned to the possessorunder the DP-analysis. It is generally assumed that the 's is <strong>in</strong>volved <strong>in</strong>Case-assignment to the possessor. But what precisely is the position of 's,and what is <strong>its</strong> relation to the possessor?3.5.aMorphological Case AxOne possibility that can be immediately elim<strong>in</strong>ated is that 's is a morphologicalcase-mark<strong>in</strong>g. As is well-known, 's cliticizes to the entire subjectnoun phrase it does not appear simply as an ax on the head: 19,20(61) a. [a cous<strong>in</strong> of m<strong>in</strong>e]'s houseb. [the man <strong>in</strong> the store]'s sudden disappearance19 If words like m<strong>in</strong>e, your, are suppletive from I's (or me's), you's, then cliticizationof 's feeds morphological processes. This is not problematic.20 <strong>The</strong> text examples are not perfectly well-formed. Later, <strong>in</strong> a dierent context, I markthem as marg<strong>in</strong>al. I th<strong>in</strong>k they are suciently good, though, to illustrate the claim that's is not simply a case ax which attaches to the head of the noun phrase.


52 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE3.5.bDeterm<strong>in</strong>erAnother possibility (suggested to me by Richard Larson) is that 's <strong>in</strong> factoccupies the determ<strong>in</strong>er position: i.e., that the structure is the follow<strong>in</strong>g:(62) ___DP/ |DP D'__| | \John D NP| |'s book's appears only pre-nom<strong>in</strong>ally <strong>in</strong> noun phrases (DP's) because it is <strong>in</strong> facta D. <strong>The</strong> non-co-occurence of possessors and determ<strong>in</strong>ers is not problematic,because possessors do co-occur with a determ<strong>in</strong>er, namely 's. Caseassignmentto the possessor is parallel to Case-assignment <strong>in</strong> the sentence:'s corresponds to AGR <strong>in</strong> assign<strong>in</strong>g Case to <strong>its</strong> subject. Possessors fail toco-occur with other determ<strong>in</strong>ers, because other determ<strong>in</strong>ers are unable toassign Case.3.5.cPostposition: N Case-AssignsA third possibility is that 's is a postpositional Case-marker. Let us assumeChomsky's 1986b characterization of Case-assignment <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase.He assumes the standard analysis of the noun phrase, <strong>in</strong> which the noun ishead. 's is not present at d-structure. It is also not the assigner of Caseto the possessor. Rather, the noun assigns genitive case to the possessor. 21Genitive case, <strong>in</strong> contrast to nom<strong>in</strong>ative and accusative case, is an <strong>in</strong>herentcase, and is assigned at d-structure. However, even though it is assignedat d-structure, it must be \realized" at s-structure this is the purpose of's-<strong>in</strong>sertion. 's is the \realization" of genitive case.This analysis is not readily transplantable <strong>in</strong>to the DP-analysis structure.It is crucial for Chomsky that the noun govern the position <strong>in</strong> which's appears: this is a consequence of his Uniformity Condition on <strong>in</strong>herentCase-assignment, by which he<strong>in</strong>tends to account for the lack of rais<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>21 To account for genitive case assignment <strong>in</strong>thePoss-<strong>in</strong>g gerund, Chomsky assumesVP can assign genitive case when it heads a noun phrase. This is highly problematic.We have already discussed how mak<strong>in</strong>g VP the head of the Poss-<strong>in</strong>g gerund violatesX-bar theory, strictly <strong>in</strong>terpreted. Further unanswered questions are why VP is the onlyCase-assigner which is a maximal projection, and why VP doesn't assign genitive case<strong>in</strong> other places, such as to the subject of <strong>in</strong>nitives. <strong>The</strong> DP-analysis perm<strong>its</strong> a muchless ad hoc account of gerunds, as we have seen, and as will be spelled out <strong>in</strong> detail <strong>in</strong>the next chapter.


3. THE DP-ANALYSIS 53the noun phrase (among other th<strong>in</strong>gs). In the DP-analysis, though, thenoun does not govern the position of the possessor. This problem mightbe gotten around by <strong>in</strong>troduc<strong>in</strong>g a notion of s-government, which diersfrom government only <strong>in</strong> that the elements which anodecan s-governbelong to the doma<strong>in</strong> of <strong>its</strong> ('s) maximal s-projection, rather than that of<strong>its</strong> maximal c-projection. Unless it can be shown that s-government playssome <strong>in</strong>dependent role <strong>in</strong> the grammar, however, an analysis which did notrequire it would be preferable.Quite apart from the DP-analysis, an objection to Chomsky's analysisis that it does not expla<strong>in</strong> why 's only appears with possessors. If 's is therealization of genitive Case, it is explicable why it can only appear <strong>in</strong> thecontext of genitive case assignment, but this would still permit 's appear<strong>in</strong>gpost-nom<strong>in</strong>ally (*destruction the city's) or <strong>in</strong> AP's.On the other hand, if 's can only be <strong>in</strong>serted under government byN,itis dicult to expla<strong>in</strong> why it can appear <strong>in</strong> gerunds: John's bak<strong>in</strong>g the cake.(As mentioned <strong>in</strong> footnote 21, Chomsky assumes that VP exceptionallyassigns genitive case here this move seems to me to be entirely ad hoc.)3.5.dPostposition: AGR Case-AssignsAlternatively, we could take 's to be a postposition mark<strong>in</strong>g genitive Caseassigned by AGR, not N:(63) ____DP/ |PP D'/ \ | \DP P D NP| | |'s AGR NAn apparent problem for the postpositional analysis is that the determ<strong>in</strong>ernever actually appears, but is always empty when there is a possessor.This would seem to make the postpositional analysis and the DP-analysis<strong>in</strong>compatible. One possibility is that the disappearance of the determ<strong>in</strong>eris actually an <strong>in</strong>stance of a more general process of determ<strong>in</strong>er elision. Ifthis is the case, it turns this apparent liability<strong>in</strong>to an advantage. Under ananalysis <strong>in</strong> which determ<strong>in</strong>er and possessor occupy the same position, thereis no determ<strong>in</strong>er at all, not even a deleted one, mak<strong>in</strong>g it dicult to expla<strong>in</strong>why possessed noun phrases have a denite <strong>in</strong>terpretation. Under theelision analysis, we can assume that the determ<strong>in</strong>er that has been deletedis denite.


54 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCEEvidence for other cases of determ<strong>in</strong>er elision is not hard to nd. In<strong>English</strong>, consider the noun phrases:(64) a. [a hundred] nights*[hundred] nightsb. *those [a hundred] nightsthose [ hundred] nightsA is required before hundred unless a determ<strong>in</strong>er proceeds, when it is elided.A similar process is found <strong>in</strong> Papago: 22(65) a. g 'a'althe childrenb. g ha-je'~ethe 3p-mother\their mother"c. * g [g 'a'al] ha-je'~ethe the children 3p-motherc.' * 'am [g miisa] wecothe the table underneathd. g t ha-je'~e ... [g 'a'al]the 3p-mother ... the children\the children's mother"d.' 'am t weco [g miisa]the underneath the table\under the table"e. g [ 'a'al] ha-je'~ethe children 3p-mother\the children's mother"e.' 'am [ miisa] wecothe table underneathTwo consecutive determ<strong>in</strong>ers, as <strong>in</strong> (65c,c'), are ungrammatical. Either thepossessor can be extraposed, as <strong>in</strong> (65d,d') (other material <strong>in</strong> the sentencecan <strong>in</strong>tervene between the noun phrase and the extraposed possessor), orthe <strong>in</strong>ner possessor's determ<strong>in</strong>er can be elided. Evidence that the brackett<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong> (65e') is as shown, and not ['am miisa] weco is that 'am is a special22 Data from K. Hale (p.c.). Cf. Hale et al (1977).


3. THE DP-ANALYSIS 55locative determ<strong>in</strong>er that only occurs with \postpositions" like weco: *'ammiisa is ill-formed.One piece of evidence weigh<strong>in</strong>g aga<strong>in</strong>st the elision analysis is that relativeclauses are licensed by the, but are prohibited with possessors: thebook that I read, *John's book that I read. If there is an elided the with thepossessor,| i.e., if the structure is actually John's the book that I read priorto PF|this is unexpected.An alternative to the elision analysis is that there is a co-occurence restriction<strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong> which prevents nom<strong>in</strong>al AGR from occupy<strong>in</strong>gaDnodewhich is already occupied by a lexical determ<strong>in</strong>er. <strong>The</strong>n overt possessorscannot co-occur with determ<strong>in</strong>ers, because the possessors would not receiveCase.A nal question is whether the genitive marker 's is present at d-structure, or <strong>in</strong>serted after d-structure. If it is present at d-structure, wemust tread lightly vis-a-vis passive <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase. Object of postpositionis generally assumed not to be a valid land<strong>in</strong>g site for movementif we take 's to be a postposition, this would apparently be <strong>in</strong>compatiblewith noun-phrase passive. We can avoid this problem by tak<strong>in</strong>g 's tobe equivalent to a case-marker <strong>in</strong> languages that overtly mark case. Forconcreteness, let us assume case-markers dier from \true" adpositions <strong>in</strong>that the phrase headed by the case-marker is like a noun phrase with respectto -assignment. Case-markers are functional elements that <strong>in</strong>heritthe descriptive content|and the referential <strong>in</strong>dex|of their complement,whereas \true" adpositions are thematic elements that - and Case-assigntheir complements. I will denote case-markers as \K", <strong>in</strong> contrast with\true" adpositions, i.e., \P". Further, let us suppose that an argumentmust be a maximal s-projection. This means that a DP is an argumentwhen it is not the complement of a K, but DP is not an argument whenitis the complement ofK.Thus, assign<strong>in</strong>g a -role to KP but not to the DP\buried" <strong>in</strong>side it does not violate the -criterion. F<strong>in</strong>ally, case-markersbear the case features of the argument they head these case features mustby licensed by and co<strong>in</strong>cide with the Case actually assigned to the argument.If [DP 's] isaKP,we can generate it as complement of a noun,receiv<strong>in</strong>g the <strong>in</strong>ternal -role assigned by that noun, and raise it to Spec ofD to receive genitive Case from AGR: <strong>in</strong> other words, the characterizationofKIhave just given perm<strong>its</strong> us to treat 's as a postpositional K, withoutforc<strong>in</strong>g us to abandon the idea of passive <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase.It seems, then, that coherent accounts can given whether we take 's tobe present at d-structure or <strong>in</strong>serted <strong>in</strong> the course of the derivation. Forconceptual reasons, I prefer a theory <strong>in</strong> which d-structure can be \read o"of s-structure hence a theory which eschews <strong>in</strong>sertion operations. For thisreason, I prefer the analysis <strong>in</strong> which 's is present at d-structure |though


56 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCEit will not be crucial for anyth<strong>in</strong>g I have tosay <strong>in</strong> what follows.<strong>The</strong>re is also little evidence clearly favor<strong>in</strong>g the 's-as-case-marker analyisover the 's-as-determ<strong>in</strong>er analysis of section 3.5.b., or vice versa. I preferthe 's-as-case-marker analysis for two reasons: (1) historically, 's was a casemorpheme synchronically, analyz<strong>in</strong>g it as a case marker is more <strong>in</strong>tuitivethan analyz<strong>in</strong>g it as a determ<strong>in</strong>er and (2) the 's-as-determ<strong>in</strong>er analysis doesnot generalize to languages like Hungarian, where possessors and lexicaldeterm<strong>in</strong>ers (i.e., AGR and lexical determ<strong>in</strong>ers) do co-occur the 's-as-casemarkeranalysis does generalize to these languages.3.6 Appendix: Selection of DPAn obvious objection to the DP-analysis is that unlike C and I, D does notappear to be selected by a matrix head but as is well-known, selectionalrestrictions are imposed on N. This would argue aga<strong>in</strong>st D as the head ofthe noun phrase. But note, rst, that the k<strong>in</strong>ds of selectional restrictionsimposed on nouns are purely semantic, and not structural <strong>in</strong> the way therestrictions imposed on C and I have been argued to be. Namely, the k<strong>in</strong>dsof selectional restriction imposed on object noun phrases are also imposedon subject noun phrases. Restriction to animate nouns is one such example,as illustrated <strong>in</strong> the classic sentences (66):(66) a. i. S<strong>in</strong>cerity frightens Johnii. * John frightens s<strong>in</strong>cerityb. i. * S<strong>in</strong>cerity fears Johnii. John fears s<strong>in</strong>cerity<strong>The</strong> subject, however, is not governed by the verb, which imposes the restriction.Thus, though it is unexpla<strong>in</strong>ed why verbs do not select for determ<strong>in</strong>ers,this is actually a general problem: verbs do not select for any partof the noun phrase <strong>in</strong> the way they select for C and I.In regard to the selection of determ<strong>in</strong>ers, there is a very <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>gparadigm from Navaho that mer<strong>its</strong> consideration. <strong>The</strong>re is a small class ofNavaho verbs which select for semantic categories typically assigned to thedeterm<strong>in</strong>er, as illustrated <strong>in</strong> (67), (68). (Perfective stem given. All Navahoexamples drawn from Young & Morgan 1971.)(67) a. hi \to kill one th<strong>in</strong>g"tseed \to kill two or more th<strong>in</strong>gs"b. ghod \to run, of one be<strong>in</strong>g"chaa' \to run, of two be<strong>in</strong>gs"jee' \to run, of three or more be<strong>in</strong>gs"


3. THE DP-ANALYSIS 57c. han \to throw one th<strong>in</strong>g"tl'iid \to throw two or more th<strong>in</strong>gs"(68) a. 'aad \to lose, toss, a at, exible object"deel \to lose, toss, a slender, exible object"ne' \to lose, toss, a round or bulky object"b. tsooz \to handle a at, exible object"la \to handle a slender, exible object"'a \to handle a round or bulky object"tlee' \to handle mushy matter"ta \to handle a slender, sti object"c. keez \to fall, of a slender, sti object"heezh \to fall, ow, of mushy matter"ts'id \to fall, of a hard object"tlizh \to fall, of an animate object"<strong>The</strong> dist<strong>in</strong>ctions made <strong>in</strong> (68) are dist<strong>in</strong>ctions often encoded <strong>in</strong> determ<strong>in</strong>ers,i.e., <strong>in</strong> class markers such as are found <strong>in</strong> many East African languages.What is most strik<strong>in</strong>g is that, unlike the semantic selectional restrictionsfound <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>, these restrictions are imposed only on the object. <strong>The</strong>reare no transitive verbs <strong>in</strong> Navaho which select for the number of theirsubject <strong>in</strong> this fashion.<strong>The</strong>re are two facts that make this paradigm only a curiosity, however.First, though the selected argument isalways a sole argument, it is probablynot always an underly<strong>in</strong>g object: run, for <strong>in</strong>stance, is not a typicalunaccusative mean<strong>in</strong>g. Secondly, and more importantly, Navaho does notactually mark any of these dist<strong>in</strong>ctions|object class or number|<strong>in</strong> <strong>its</strong> determ<strong>in</strong>er.Despite this, though, I th<strong>in</strong>k that the Navaho paradigm doesshow that selection of determ<strong>in</strong>er is not a possibility excluded by UniversalGrammar.


58 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE4 PRO <strong>in</strong> the <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong>A question on which the DP-analysis bears is whether there can be a PROsubject of the noun phrase. <strong>The</strong> DP-analysis <strong>in</strong>volves mak<strong>in</strong>g the nounphrase sentence-like <strong>in</strong> such away asto\make room" for a PRO subject.Certa<strong>in</strong> curiosities about noun phrase behavior, which <strong>in</strong>dicate it is as ifthere was a PRO <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase, have long been noted. In this section,I review and expand on these facts.Under the standard analysis, PRO <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase is not a possibility,without signicantly alter<strong>in</strong>g certa<strong>in</strong> assumptions about PRO: if thenoun phrase is the maximal projection of N, <strong>its</strong> subject position is alwaysgoverned by N, hence PRO isalways excluded.On the other hand, the DP-analysis perm<strong>its</strong> PRO <strong>in</strong> the subject positionof the noun phrase. In particular, s<strong>in</strong>ce D is not a lexical category, weexpect it not to be a governor hence <strong>its</strong> subject position may be ungoverned(depend<strong>in</strong>g on whether there is an external governor, and whether DP isabarriertogovernment). In pr<strong>in</strong>ciple, then, there may beaPRO <strong>in</strong> thesubject position of DP.4.1 PRO book<strong>The</strong> standard analysis appears to make the right predictions for exampleslike *(the) PRO book, as observed by Aoun & Sportiche (1981). Iwanted(the) book cannot mean either \I wanted my book", or \I wanted someone'sbook". This <strong>in</strong>dicates that there is neither a controlled nor arbitrary PROpossessor present.However, there is an explanation for the non-occurence of PRO, <strong>in</strong>dependentof the non-governability ofPRO. It is very likely that the \possessor"-role is not assigned by the noun. Possession is possible with everyconcrete noun, not vary<strong>in</strong>g from item to item as -roles do. It has beenclaimed by some that 's is the assigner of the possessor -role. I would liketo state it slightly dierently: the possessor -role is assigned by D, butonly when 's is present. This comes to the same th<strong>in</strong>g if 's isaD:we claimthat 's is the only determ<strong>in</strong>er that assigns the possessor -role. If 's is acase-marker, we can suppose that there is a unique empty D which AGR isable to occupy this empty D is the assigner of the possessor -role.If this story is correct, PRO book violates the -Criterion: there is norole for PRO, as there is no 's. 23 On the other hand, if 's does appear,23 Under the account <strong>in</strong>which 's is a case-marker, we are forced to take the somewhatcurious position that the empty D that assigns the possessor -role (call it \D e") cannotappear without AGR. If D e satises count nouns' need for a determ<strong>in</strong>er, and if it couldappear without AGR, we would expect it to be able to assign the possessor role to PRO


4. PRO IN THE NOUN PHRASE 59there is either an AGR with it, or it is <strong>its</strong>elf equivalent toAGR (on the's-as-determ<strong>in</strong>er story) <strong>in</strong> be<strong>in</strong>g a Case-assigner. Thus PRO's book is alsoill-formed, <strong>in</strong> this case because PRO isgoverned by AGR.An apparent weakness <strong>in</strong> this account is a problem with one of myassumptions, namely, that D AGR is the assigner of the possessive -role.<strong>The</strong>re are apparent recipients of the possessive -role which appear as complementsof N, as <strong>in</strong> the social security number of your spouse, cf. yourspouse's social security number. If the possessive -role is assigned by D,how can it show up <strong>in</strong>side NP? I would like to suggest that the of <strong>in</strong>volved<strong>in</strong> these examples is a true preposition which assigns the possessive -role.In other words, D AGR assigns the possessive -role, but it is not the onlyword which does so. D AGR and of are unable to co-occur for the same reasonthat two verbal adjuncts which assign the same -role cannot co-occur:*your spouse's social security number of the big lout is equivalent to*theship was destroyed byanExocet missle with that endish weapon. Of yourspouse <strong>in</strong> the social security number of your spouse is thus dist<strong>in</strong>ct fromof your spouse <strong>in</strong> the deception of your spouse. <strong>The</strong> former is a PP, thelatter a KP. <strong>The</strong> former is a -assigner, the latter not. <strong>The</strong> dist<strong>in</strong>ction isunderl<strong>in</strong>ed <strong>in</strong> the fact that the -assigner imposes special restrictions on <strong>its</strong>objects which are not imposed by the case marker. Consider: 24(69) a. the battle-cry of the Visigoths* the battle-cry of Johnb. the elim<strong>in</strong>ation of the Visigothsthe elim<strong>in</strong>ation of John4.2 -theory4.2.aDerived Nom<strong>in</strong>als<strong>The</strong> rst argument that there is <strong>in</strong> some cases a PRO subject of DP comesfrom -theory. <strong>The</strong> -Criterion, <strong>in</strong> <strong>its</strong> simplest form, predicts a recipientfor the external -role <strong>in</strong> action nom<strong>in</strong>alizations like the destruction of the<strong>in</strong> *[PRO D e book]. Note that it is not sucient simply to say thatD e is a governor,<strong>in</strong>dependently of whether it has an AGR or not. If D e can appear without AGR, wewould predict that *[D e book], without a PRO, is well-formed: the count nounbook hasan acceptable determ<strong>in</strong>er. Ifwe claimed that *[D e book] is bad because D e obligatorilyassigns a -role, but there is noth<strong>in</strong>g available <strong>in</strong> *[D e book] to assign it to, then werun <strong>in</strong>to problems with examples of noun-phrase passive like the city's D(e destruction),where we would like tosay that D e Case-assigns, but crucially does not -assign, thecity.24 Whatever this restriction is, it is not phonological (i.e., \no monosyllables"), asitmight seem at rst: OK the battle-cry of fools.


60 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCEcity, and <strong>in</strong> fact an agent is understood. Ceteris paribus, wewould expectthe agent tobesyntactically realized:(70) [DP PRO the [NP destruction of the city]]\___th__/We can assume that NP assigns the external -role of destruction to PROvia predication. 25 For cases such asCaesar's [ D AGR] [ NP destruction ofthe city], I wish to make a similar claim: Caesar is Case-assigned by D AGR ,but it is -assigned by NP. <strong>The</strong> empty D <strong>in</strong> the possessive constructionassigns the possessor -role optionally, I assume. If the possessor receives a-role from N (either externally, as<strong>in</strong>Caesar's destruction of Carthage, orvia an <strong>in</strong>ternal trace, as <strong>in</strong> the city's destruction t), D AGR does not assignthe possessor -role, and the subject receives only one -role, as desired.4.2.bRationale ClausesRoeper 1984 presents evidence that \implicit agents" behave as if they aresyntactically present, which supports the claim that implicit agents are<strong>in</strong>deed present asPRO. Consider:(71) a. the PRO destruction of the city [PRO toprove apo<strong>in</strong>t]b. *the city's destruction [PRO toprove a po<strong>in</strong>t](72) a. the PRO review of the book [PRO toprove apo<strong>in</strong>t]b. *the book's review [PRO toprove apo<strong>in</strong>t](Roeper 1984, exx. 103,104)Roeper argues that the rationale clause is licensed only if the Agent roleis syntactically realized. In the (a) sentences, the rst PRO receives theAgent role, licens<strong>in</strong>g the rationale clause. In the (b) sentences, on the otherhand, the passivized object lls the subject position, exclud<strong>in</strong>g PRO. Hencethe Agent is not realized, and the rationale clause is not licensed.We cannot say simply that there must be an Agent <strong>in</strong> the matrix clause,and it must control the subject of the rationale clause. First, there arerationale clauses even where no control is <strong>in</strong>volved:(73) Jesus died that we might liveJohn cleaned o the table for Mary to have roomtowork25 Counter Williams (1981), I assume that predication is possible <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase,precisely because I assume, counter Williams, that there is a maximal-category predicate(NP) with<strong>in</strong> the noun phrase. More on predication below, section 5.1.


4. PRO IN THE NOUN PHRASE 61Let us assume that rationale clauses are licensed by a relation R betweenthe matrix and subord<strong>in</strong>ate situations, where the <strong>in</strong>terpretation of R(,)is \the purpose of is ". Where the subject of the rationale clause isPRO, though, R is subject to a condition on control. Where the matrixsituation is an action (as opposed to a state), there must be an agent, andit must control the lower PRO. Where the matrix situation is stative, onthe other hand, this is not the case:(74) Roses i are thorny PRO to protect them i from gardenersNot only is there no agent, but the sole argument, roses, also does notcontrol PRO: if we claimed that roses controlled PRO, then we would havea Pr<strong>in</strong>ciple B violation between PRO and them.In these cases, as observed by Lasnik (1984), it does not appear thatPRO has an arbitrary <strong>in</strong>terpretation. Rather, the controller appears to bethe matrix situation. Thus (74) means that the fact of roses be<strong>in</strong>g thornyprotects them from gardeners.It is not necessary that the situation be the controller <strong>in</strong> statives, however.Consider:(75) Sharks are streaml<strong>in</strong>ed PRO to cut through the water betterHere sharks is the controller situations (<strong>in</strong> particular, that of sharks be<strong>in</strong>gstreaml<strong>in</strong>ed) cannot cut through water.<strong>The</strong> proper generalization appears to be this: with a matrix action(= a [-stative] situation), there must be an agent, and it must controlthe rationale clause. With a matrix state (= a [+stative] situation), anyargument, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g the situation <strong>its</strong>elf, may be the controller.This predicts, contrary to Roeper, that rationale clauses should <strong>in</strong> factbe possible with middles, if middles can be made [+stative]. This can beaccomplished by mak<strong>in</strong>g the matrix sentence generic:(76) Cont<strong>in</strong>ents s<strong>in</strong>k PRO to replenish the earth's supply of magma<strong>The</strong> dist<strong>in</strong>ction between this example and Roeper's ungrammatical *theboat sank to prove a po<strong>in</strong>t (Roeper 1984 ex.3a) is that the matrix sentence<strong>in</strong> Roeper's example describes an <strong>in</strong>dividual event, hence is [-stative] andthus an agent is required.F<strong>in</strong>ally, Roeper notes that <strong>in</strong> contrast to passive <strong>in</strong> nom<strong>in</strong>als and middles,passive <strong>in</strong> the sentence does not nullify rationale-clause licens<strong>in</strong>g:(77) <strong>The</strong> boat was sunk to collect the <strong>in</strong>surance


62 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCERoeper argues that the Agent role is <strong>in</strong> fact syntactically realized, on thepassive morphology. Baker, Johnson, and Roberts 1985 propose that thepassive morpheme -en behaves like a subject clitic. Alternatively, we cananalyze this implicit argument asaPROaswell, if we adopt a \bi-clausal"analysis of passive, roughly:(78)the boat was [PROi -en [VP s<strong>in</strong>k t]] [PROi to collect the| \__Ag___/ | <strong>in</strong>surance]|___________________________|<strong>The</strong> matrix PRO (or the -en, under the Baker, Johnson, & Robertsproposal) bears the agent role, and licenses the rationale clause. In nom<strong>in</strong>alsand middles, the morphology is absent, hence the embedded passive\clause" with <strong>its</strong> PRO is absent, the Agent role cannot be assigned, andthe rationale clause is not licensed:(79)*[the boat] 's D [NP destruction t [to collect the <strong>in</strong>surance]\___________________________|<strong>The</strong> long and short of this discussion is that, when restricted to [-stative]cases, Roeper's orig<strong>in</strong>al observation still holds: rationale clauses requirea syntactically-realized controll<strong>in</strong>g agent argument to be licensed. PROprovides such a controller <strong>in</strong> the nom<strong>in</strong>al, though not <strong>in</strong> the \passive"nom<strong>in</strong>al, where PRO is displaced by the fronted object.4.3 Control <strong>The</strong>oryA second argument that has been forwarded <strong>in</strong> favor of a PRO <strong>in</strong> subjectof the noun phrase is provided by control theory. Consider:(80) Any attempt [PRO toleave]<strong>The</strong> desire [PRO to succeed]In the rst example, the attempter is necessarily the same as the leaver,and mutatis mutandis for the second example. This is expla<strong>in</strong>ed if weassume that a conguration of obligatory control is <strong>in</strong>volved, and that thereis a PRO subject of attempt (desire).A problem is that similar facts arise even where control cannot be <strong>in</strong>volved.For example, <strong>in</strong> an attempted escape, the attempter is necessarilythe escaper, but we would not wish to say there is a control relation betweentwo PRO subjects. Apparently, there is a purely semantic \control"phenomenon, follow<strong>in</strong>g from the mean<strong>in</strong>g of attempt.


4. PRO IN THE NOUN PHRASE 634.4 B<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g theoryB<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g theory also provides arguments for the existence of PRO <strong>in</strong> thenoun phrase. <strong>The</strong> simplest examples are the follow<strong>in</strong>g:(81) a. [pictures of themselves] bother the menb. [criticism of oneself] is necessary <strong>in</strong> moderation<strong>The</strong> anaphors themselves, oneself, lack overt antecedents. Pr<strong>in</strong>ciple A <strong>in</strong>siststhat a local antecedent exist therefore, it must be non-overt. A PROsubject of noun phrase is by far the most likely candidate.<strong>The</strong>re is an alternative explanation one might suggest for (81a). Consider:(82) a. [pictures of each other] were given t to the mend. Igave [pictures of each other] to the menSuppose that the men c-commands each other <strong>in</strong> (82b). Pr<strong>in</strong>ciple A is satised<strong>in</strong> the normal way, even without a PRO <strong>in</strong>pictures of each other. Ifwe assume that b<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g theory is applied to a conguration <strong>in</strong> which nounphrases are (at least optionally) reconstructed <strong>in</strong>to their d-structure positions,(82a) is grammatical because it is identical to (82b) at the relevantlevel of representation. In like manner, we might expla<strong>in</strong> the grammaticalityof (81a) by assum<strong>in</strong>g that the d-structure is <strong>in</strong> fact (83):(83) e bother the men [pictures of each other]This explanation does not extend to (81b), however thus (81b) rema<strong>in</strong>s asevidence for a noun-phrase PRO.Parallel to (81b) are examples like(84) *PRO i criticism of them iwhere the criticiser(s) cannot be them. This can be accounted for as aPr<strong>in</strong>ciple B violation, if there is a PRO subject of criticism.Further examples are due to Ross (1967):(85) a. PRO i the realization that he i has broken the lawb. PRO j,*i the realization that John i has broken the lawIn (85a), the realizer can be he. In (85b), on the other hand, the realizercannot be John, butmust be someone else. This is explicable as a Pr<strong>in</strong>cipleC violation, assum<strong>in</strong>g there is a PRO present.It is also possible to construct violations of Strong Crossover, thoughthe judgments are rather subtle. Consider the follow<strong>in</strong>g two discourses:


64 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE(86) John won <strong>in</strong> small claims court.<strong>The</strong> judge believed PRO i the assertion that Bill cheated him i .(87) I can't remember who it was who won <strong>in</strong> small claims court.Who i did the judge believe PRO j,*i the assertion that Bill cheatedt?In (86), it is possible that John is speak<strong>in</strong>g for himself: that he is theasserter. In (87), it does not seem that the speaker can be assum<strong>in</strong>g thatthe asserter and the cheated were the same person, whose identity is underquestion. (<strong>The</strong>re is a mild CNPC violation <strong>in</strong> (87), mak<strong>in</strong>g it less than fullygrammatical, but that is irrelevant to the po<strong>in</strong>t under discussion.)Aga<strong>in</strong>, consider these examples from Chomsky 1986b:(88) a. <strong>The</strong>y i heard [stories about each other i ]b. <strong>The</strong>y i heard [(PRO) stories about them ic. <strong>The</strong>y i told [stories about each other id. *<strong>The</strong>y i told [(PRO) stories about them i ]Assum<strong>in</strong>g Chomsky's b<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g theory, the judgements are as would be expected,except for the (b) sentence, <strong>The</strong>y told stories about them. S<strong>in</strong>cethe whole sentence is the govern<strong>in</strong>g category for them, wewould expect aviolation of Condition B, just as <strong>in</strong> (d). On the other hand, if PRO optionallyappears <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase, the noun phrase becomes the govern<strong>in</strong>gcategory. Thus, sentence (b) becomes acceptable, where PRO is not co<strong>in</strong>dexedwith them. And <strong>in</strong> fact, the only <strong>in</strong>terpretation available is one <strong>in</strong>which they heard someone else's stories about them. In sentence (d), onthe other hand, the PRO must be co<strong>in</strong>dexed with the subject, hence withthem, because of the mean<strong>in</strong>g of tell. Thus (d) cannot be saved by allow<strong>in</strong>gthe optional PRO to appear.This argument is actually not consistent with an earlier argument, atleast on the face of it. It is crucial to the argument from paradigm (88)that PRO beoptional. IfPRO is optional, however, then we lose our earlierexplanation of why they cannot be the criticisers <strong>in</strong> criticism of them. I willnot pursue the issue here, beyond suggest<strong>in</strong>g that it may berelevant thatcriticism is a derived nom<strong>in</strong>al, while story is not. Perhaps PRO is requiredwith criticism, to receive the external -role, but not with story, becausestory is not deverbal, hence lacks a -grid. Story can acquire an external-role by a k<strong>in</strong>d of back-formation process, treat<strong>in</strong>g it as if it were deverbal.This process is presumably optional, and somewhat marg<strong>in</strong>al.


4. PRO IN THE NOUN PHRASE 654.5 Arguments Aga<strong>in</strong>st PRO <strong>in</strong> the <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong>4.5.aYesterday's DestructionWilliams 1985 presents several arguments aga<strong>in</strong>st hav<strong>in</strong>g PRO <strong>in</strong> the nounphrase. One argument is that, <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase, temporal adjuncts can llthe subject position, under certa<strong>in</strong> circumstances. When they do so, theypresumably displace PRO, yet rationale clauses are still licensed, <strong>in</strong>dicat<strong>in</strong>gthat the licens<strong>in</strong>g of rationale clauses is not evidence for the presence ofPRO after all:(89) yesterday's D AGR destruction of the ship [to collect the <strong>in</strong>surance]Iwould like to claim that PRO is <strong>in</strong> fact present <strong>in</strong> (89): that thestructure is:(90)___________DP/ / \DP KP D'| | | \PRO yesterday's D NP| | | \| | AGR destruction of the ship| |__Poss__| ||__Ag________________|Let us suppose that PRO only \counts" as governed when it participates<strong>in</strong> some relation with a governor. In (90), D AGR Case-assigns and -assignsyesterday, but it has no relation to PRO, hence does not govern PRO. 26 Inthis, (90) crucially diers from (91):26 I assume that yesterday receives the possessor -role from D AGR . (90) is <strong>in</strong>terpretedas \the destruction belong<strong>in</strong>g to yesterday", \the destruction of yesterday". This highlyabstract sense of possession appears to be well with<strong>in</strong> the range of associations thatqualify as \possession" the range of relations qualify<strong>in</strong>g as \possession" is notoriouslybroad.


66 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE(91)* DP/ \PRO D'| / \| D NP| | || AGR book|__|PossIn (91), PRO is-assigned by D AGR , hence governed. In (90), PRO has norelationtoD AGR . PROis-assigned by NP, receiv<strong>in</strong>g the external -roleof destruction, and of course PRO requires no Case. NP does not qualifyas a governor, be<strong>in</strong>g a maximal projection: else PRO would be governedby VP <strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>nitives, as well.4.5.bObligator<strong>in</strong>ess of Control<strong>The</strong> major argument aga<strong>in</strong>st hav<strong>in</strong>g a PRO <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase is that the\PRO" <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase diers from sentential PRO <strong>in</strong> <strong>its</strong> properties asacontrollee. PRO <strong>in</strong>thesentence must usually be controlled otherwise itmust be arb. PRO <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase, on the other hand, may be both noncontrolledand non-arbitrary (i.e., non-generic). Consider these examplesfrom Williams l985:(92) a. <strong>The</strong> leaves i should not be bothered while PRO i dessicat<strong>in</strong>g.b. <strong>The</strong> leaves i should not be bothered dur<strong>in</strong>g PRO i dessication.(93) a. *You should not bother the leaves i while PRO i dessicat<strong>in</strong>g.b. You should not bother the leaves i dur<strong>in</strong>g PRO i dessication.<strong>The</strong> PRO of the gerund must be coreferential with the surface-structuresubject. This provides strong evidence that it <strong>in</strong> fact exists. <strong>The</strong> \PRO"of the noun phrase, on the other hand, is not subject to this restriction. Itdoes not require an antecedent atall:(94) You i should not enter the chamber dur<strong>in</strong>g PRO j detoxication ofthe samples.(vs. *You i should not enter the chamber while PRO j detoxify<strong>in</strong>g thesamples.)


4. PRO IN THE NOUN PHRASE 67If there were actually a PRO <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase, one would expect it tobehave like PRO <strong>in</strong> the sentence. S<strong>in</strong>ce PRO <strong>in</strong> the sentence cannot take a\discourse" antecedent, this suggests that \PRO" <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase eitherdoes not exist, or is not PRO.Wasow and Roeper 1972 also note the obligator<strong>in</strong>ess of control <strong>in</strong>tosentences, but not <strong>in</strong>to noun phrases. <strong>The</strong>y compare dierent k<strong>in</strong>ds ofgerunds. Consider:(95) a. I i detest PRO j loud s<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g Nb. *I i detest PRO j s<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g V loudly(96) a. John i enjoyed PRO j a read<strong>in</strong>g N of <strong>The</strong> Bald Sopranob. *John i enjoyed PRO j read<strong>in</strong>g V <strong>The</strong> Bald Soprano(97) a. PRO j sight<strong>in</strong>gs N of UFO's make Mary i nervousb. *PRO j sight<strong>in</strong>g V UFO's makes Mary i nervous(98) a. PRO j the kill<strong>in</strong>g N of his dog upset John ib. *PRO j kill<strong>in</strong>g V his dog upset John iAll the verbal gerunds are good with coreference. <strong>The</strong> nouns vary: (a) isbad, the others are relatively acceptable.One possible explanation for these facts is the follow<strong>in</strong>g. It is proposed<strong>in</strong> Williams 1981 that control is not a direct relation between an antecedentand PRO, but is actually a relation between an antecedent and the clauseof which PRO is subject, and only <strong>in</strong>directly a relation between antecedentand PRO. This would permit us to make a dist<strong>in</strong>ction between PRO <strong>in</strong>thenoun phrase and PRO <strong>in</strong> sentences, if we suppose that sentences are subjectto control, but noun phrases are not. <strong>The</strong> apparent dierence betweenPRO <strong>in</strong> sentences and PRO <strong>in</strong> noun phrases with regard to obligator<strong>in</strong>essof control is actually a dierence <strong>in</strong> the ability of the phrase conta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>gPRO tobecontrolled.A dist<strong>in</strong>ction <strong>in</strong> control properties depend<strong>in</strong>g on the nature of the phraseof which PRO is subject seems to me very reasonable. We must be careful<strong>in</strong> how we spell it out, though. Anticipat<strong>in</strong>g results of Chapter Three, Iassume that \PRO-<strong>in</strong>g" and \Ing-of" gerunds are not dist<strong>in</strong>ct <strong>in</strong> syntacticcategory both are noun phrases. But they are dist<strong>in</strong>ct <strong>in</strong> their controlproperties, as we sawabove: PRO-<strong>in</strong>g pattern<strong>in</strong>g with <strong>in</strong>nitives, and Ingofpattern<strong>in</strong>g with noun phrases. This is a ticklish problem, to which Ireturn <strong>in</strong> section III-3.2. For now, it must rema<strong>in</strong> outstand<strong>in</strong>g.


68 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCEIn conclusion, the DP-analysis provides \room" for a PRO <strong>in</strong> the nounphrase, and there is evidence that such aPRO exists. At present, the evidenceis somewhat mixed, because of the dierences <strong>in</strong> control properties ofnoun-phrase PRO and sentence PRO, but if the proposal proves defensiblethat these dierences trace to dierences <strong>in</strong> the phrase conta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g PRO,rather than to PRO <strong>its</strong>elf, the major disadvantage of postulat<strong>in</strong>g a PRO <strong>in</strong>the noun phrase will have been removed.


5. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE 695 Dierences Between <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong> and Sentence<strong>The</strong> theme of this chapter has been the similarities between noun phraseand sentence, particularly those noun-phrase/sentence similarities whichprovide evidence for the parallelism of noun-phrase and sentence structurepostulated under the DP-analysis. However, there are also substantial differencesbetween noun phrase and sentence. This leads to understandableskepticism of the DP-analysis, which could well appear susceptible to thecharge that it is motivated by a handful of similarities, only at the expenseof ignor<strong>in</strong>g a much larger body of dierences. In this section, I defend theDP-analysis aga<strong>in</strong>st this accusation. I present a long list of sentence/nounphrasedissimilarities, to show that none of them seriously challenge theDP-analysis. <strong>The</strong> majority clearly are concerned only with the relationbetween the noun and <strong>its</strong> complements, the rema<strong>in</strong>der arguably so.Before I catalog these dierences, though, I consider one alleged dierencethat clearly does concern the structure of the noun phrase specier,not <strong>its</strong> complements: namely, the alleged lack of predication <strong>in</strong> the nounphrase.5.1 Predication <strong>in</strong> the <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong>It has been claimed that there is no predication <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase. Williams(1981) and Rothste<strong>in</strong> (1983) claim that N does not predicate of an externalargument, as it is a non-maximal category, and only maximal categoriesare syntactic predicates. Consider the follow<strong>in</strong>g examples:(99) a. I consider John [a good lawyer]b. Isaw [John's lawyer](a) <strong>in</strong>volves a small clause, <strong>in</strong> which agood lawyer is the predicate, and Johnis the subject. This small clause corresponds <strong>in</strong> mean<strong>in</strong>g to the full clauseJohn is a good lawyer, <strong>in</strong> which agood lawyer is likewise predicated of John.Now consider (99b). If there were predication between the N lawyer and the\subject" John, wewould expect the sense \John is a lawyer". But (99b)does not presuppose that John is a lawyer, rather that there is someonewho is a lawyer, with whom John is associated, probably as client. That(99b) does not have a read<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> which John is the lawyer is attributed toalack of predication between N-bar and possessor.<strong>The</strong>se facts appear <strong>in</strong> quite a dierent light, however, if we take seriouslythe idea that verbs denote situations. If verbs denote situations, the\predication" <strong>in</strong>volved <strong>in</strong> (99a) is clearly dierent from predication betweena VP and <strong>its</strong> subject, as <strong>in</strong> John left. InJohn left, the VP denotes an event


70 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCEof leav<strong>in</strong>g, and <strong>its</strong> subject is identied with some role dened by thatevent:<strong>in</strong> this case, the leaver. In Iconsider [John a good lawyer], on the otherhand, the predicational noun phrase denotes a lawyer, 27 and the subject isidentied with the lawyer, not with some role dened relative toalawyer.To br<strong>in</strong>g home the po<strong>in</strong>t, let us consider the examples (100):(100) Caesar destroyed the cityCaesar's destruction of the cityModify<strong>in</strong>g assumptions of Higg<strong>in</strong>botham (1985), let us take the denotationof the VP destroy the city to be the one-place predicate (101): 28(101) e9x[9y : city(y)](destroy0(e) &R 1 (x e) &R 2 (y e))where DESTROY 0 is a one-place predicate true of exactly the acts of destruction,R 1 is an Agent relation, and R 2 is a Patient relation. <strong>The</strong> relationbetween this predicate and the denotation of the subject, Caesar, is not oneof semantic predication, rather, Caesar lls one of the roles associated withDESTROY 0 , namely R 1 of (101). More precisely, x(x = Caesar) is addedas a restriction on one of the existential quantiers: assum<strong>in</strong>g that Inserves to existentially b<strong>in</strong>d the lambda-abstracted variable e of (101), thedenotation of the IP Caesar destroyed the city is the follow<strong>in</strong>g:(102) 9e[9x : x = Caesar][9y : city(y)](destroy0(e) &R 1 (x e) &R 2 (y e))Iwould like to argue that the semantics for destruction is exactly parallel.Recall that the syntactic structure I assume for Caesar's destructionof the city is:27 Or some platonic ideal of a lawyer, an abstract \essential lawyer". For the sakeof concreteness, let us assume, with Montague, that <strong>in</strong>dividuals are sets of properties(or functions from properties to possible worlds, if we take<strong>in</strong>tensionality<strong>in</strong>to account).<strong>The</strong>n the predicational noun phrase a lawyer can be taken to denote the set conta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>gonly the property of be<strong>in</strong>g a lawyer: an \archi-<strong>in</strong>dividual". <strong>The</strong> predicate \is identiedwith" of the next phrase <strong>in</strong> the text should then be understood as \<strong>in</strong>cludes".28 Or, to be consistent with the previous footnote, we could take it to denote thes<strong>in</strong>gleton set conta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g the property correspond<strong>in</strong>g to this predicate.


5. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE 71(103)DP/ \KP D'| / \Caesar's D NP/ \N PP| |destruction of the city<strong>The</strong> NP destruction of the city, I claim, is semantically identical to theverb phrase destroy the city. Its translation is (101). In DP, the variable eis bound by D, <strong>in</strong> the same way that In b<strong>in</strong>ds the e-position <strong>in</strong> VP, andthere is a syntactic relation of Predication between the maximal projectionNP and <strong>its</strong> subject, Caesar, which is<strong>in</strong>terpreted just like the syntacticrelation of Predication between VP and <strong>its</strong> subject: namely, not as semanticpredication, but as the \ll<strong>in</strong>g" of an argument-slot by restrict<strong>in</strong>g a variable:(104)e[9x : x = Caesar][9y : city(y)](destroy0(e) &R 1 (x e) &R 2 (y e))If this account is correct, then there is <strong>in</strong> fact predication with<strong>in</strong> thenoun phrase and the relation between John and a lawyer <strong>in</strong> IconsiderJohn a lawyer is not predication at all, but identication. 29 If predicationwere <strong>in</strong>volved <strong>in</strong> small clauses headed by noun phrases, we would expecte.g. Iconsider [ SC John [ DP an expression of grief]] to be synonymous withIconsider [ IP John to have [ VP expressed grief]], but of course it is not.I should add, though, that I do not wish to imply that NP alwayspredicates of the subject of DP. Ihave already stated explicitly that I takethe possessive -role to be assigned by D, not to be an external -roleof NP assigned via predication. Thus John's expression of grief and John'spuzzled expression dier <strong>in</strong> the way John acquires a -role: there is syntacticpredication by NP <strong>in</strong> the former, but not <strong>in</strong> the latter.Two more arguments Rothste<strong>in</strong> (1983) gives aga<strong>in</strong>st predication <strong>in</strong> thenoun phrase are (1) the optionality of the subject <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase, and(2) the lack of pleonastics <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase. <strong>The</strong> paradigm (105) isillustrative:29 More precisely, the denotation of John is taken to <strong>in</strong>clude (be a superset of) thedenotation of a lawyer, where the denotation of John is the set of John's properties,and the denotation of a lawyer is the set conta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g the sole property lawyer-hood. Cf.footnote (27).


72 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE(105) a. *destroyed the citythe destruction of the cityb. it is likely that John will leave*<strong>its</strong> likelihood that John will leave<strong>The</strong> generalization is not quite noun phrase vs. sentence, however, atleast not if Poss-<strong>in</strong>g gerunds are noun phrases, as is widely accepted, andas I argue <strong>in</strong> the next chapter. Pleonastics are permitted <strong>in</strong> both Acc-<strong>in</strong>gand Poss-<strong>in</strong>g gerunds: 30(106) a. I approve of [there be<strong>in</strong>g a literacy exam for political candidates]Iwas worried about [it be<strong>in</strong>g too obvious that Charlie was ly<strong>in</strong>g]b. Iwas worried about [<strong>its</strong> be<strong>in</strong>g too obvious that Charlie wasly<strong>in</strong>g]<strong>The</strong> subject of gerunds is also obligatory. If it is not overt, there mustbe a PRO present, as illustrated by thecontrast (107) from Williams 1985,cited earlier:(107) a. #<strong>The</strong> leaves should not be disturbed while PRO dessicat<strong>in</strong>gb. <strong>The</strong> leaves should not be disturbed dur<strong>in</strong>g dessication(Whether there is a PRO <strong>in</strong> (107b) is immaterial here. What is importantis that the obligatorily agent-controlled read<strong>in</strong>g of the adjunct <strong>in</strong> (107a)<strong>in</strong>dicatesthataPRO is <strong>in</strong>deed present.)In short, <strong>in</strong> some noun phrases (namely, gerunds), the subject is obligatory,and pleonastics are allowed. <strong>The</strong>se are precisely the noun phrases<strong>in</strong> which a VP appears <strong>in</strong> place of an NP, under the analysis of gerunds Isketched <strong>in</strong> the <strong>in</strong>troduction.Under the DP-analysis, then, the generalization is that VP requires asubject to predicate of whereas NP is capable of predicat<strong>in</strong>g of a subject,30 Poss-<strong>in</strong>g with there is ill-formed, but it is generally agreed that this is due to extraneousfactors. This is especially likely <strong>in</strong> light of the well-formedness of the thereexample <strong>in</strong> (106a) perhaps it has to do with the fact that there bears an \<strong>in</strong>herent case"<strong>in</strong> <strong>its</strong> adverbial function, which clashes with genitive case: cf.:(i) a. yesterday's partyb. * then's party* now's party* here's party* there's party


5. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE 73but does not require a subject. PRO is obligatory only where predication isobligatory, and pleonastics are permitted only where predication is obligatory.This comm<strong>its</strong> us to a weaker position than Rothste<strong>in</strong>'s: namely,that syntactic predicates do not always require subjects, only verbal syntacticpredicates do. This revision of Rothste<strong>in</strong>'s claim seems reasonable,especially <strong>in</strong> light of the fact that with regard to other forms of argumenttak<strong>in</strong>g|e.g.,<strong>in</strong>ternal -assignment|verbs demand their arguments to besyntactically present <strong>in</strong>away that nouns do not. <strong>The</strong> only nouns whosearguments are not freely deletable are derived nom<strong>in</strong>als| and if Lebeaux'(1986) claims are correct, derived nom<strong>in</strong>als are not nouns at LF, but verbs.<strong>The</strong>y are certa<strong>in</strong>ly atypical nouns on anyone's account. We may claim,then, that syntactic arguments of verbs, both -arguments and predicationarguments, are obligatory, while those of nouns are <strong>in</strong> general optional.


74 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE5.2 Catalog of DierencesIn this section I give a fairly exhaustive list of the constructions found <strong>in</strong>the sentence which are not found <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase. Many of these factsare old observations some, as far as I know, have not been noted previously<strong>in</strong> the literature. <strong>The</strong> purpose of present<strong>in</strong>g this catalog of dierences isto show that they do not call <strong>in</strong>to question the parallelism between nounphrase and sentence structure postulated under the DP-analysis. <strong>The</strong> DPanalysispostulates similar specier structures for noun phrase and sentencemost of the dierences listed here have clearly to do with noun complementstructure, as it contrasts with verb complement structure. I do not attemptto give detailed analyses of all these constructions, however do<strong>in</strong>g so wouldbe a thesis <strong>in</strong> <strong>its</strong>elf. I only wish to show that the fact of these dierences isnot problematic for the DP-analysis.5.2.aA Prelim<strong>in</strong>ary: Process vs. ResultIn exam<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g the dierences between sentence and noun phrase, we will havefrequent cause to compare derived nom<strong>in</strong>als with the verbs from which theyderive. In do<strong>in</strong>g so, it is crucial to make a dist<strong>in</strong>ction which is too frequentlynot made <strong>in</strong> the literature on derived nom<strong>in</strong>als, namely, between \process"nom<strong>in</strong>als and \result" nom<strong>in</strong>als. Process nom<strong>in</strong>als denote actions/events,and result nom<strong>in</strong>als denote objects. 31 Consistently, the-grid of the verbis preserved only <strong>in</strong> process nom<strong>in</strong>als, not result nom<strong>in</strong>als. Result nom<strong>in</strong>alsmay have PP complements that appear to correspond to arguments of theverb, but they are never obligatory, and frequently show other <strong>in</strong>dicationsof be<strong>in</strong>g modiers, not arguments. This is most clearly seen with derivednom<strong>in</strong>als that have both result and process read<strong>in</strong>gs, such asexam<strong>in</strong>ation:(108) a. [exam<strong>in</strong>ation of the students] will take several hours*[exam<strong>in</strong>ation] will take several hoursb. *[the exam<strong>in</strong>ation of the students] was pr<strong>in</strong>ted on p<strong>in</strong>k paper[the exam<strong>in</strong>ation] was pr<strong>in</strong>ted on p<strong>in</strong>k paperExam<strong>in</strong>ation <strong>in</strong> (108a) denotes an action, whereas exam<strong>in</strong>ation <strong>in</strong> (108b)denotes a concrete object. (Though the object is ill-formed with the resultnom<strong>in</strong>al here, this is not always the case:(109) a. [a reconstruction of the events] will take a long time*[a reconstruction] will take a long time31 \Result nom<strong>in</strong>al" is someth<strong>in</strong>g of a misnomer, <strong>in</strong> that result nom<strong>in</strong>als do not alwaysdenote the result of the action of the verb|though that is a often the case. Follow<strong>in</strong>gGrimshaw (1986), I use the term <strong>in</strong> a extended sense, to cover all nom<strong>in</strong>als that denoteobjects (concrete or abstract) <strong>in</strong>stead of events.


5. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE 75b. [John's reconstruction of a 17th-century French village] was destroyed<strong>in</strong> the re (adapted from Anderson (1979))[John's reconstruction] was destroyed <strong>in</strong> the reIt is not always a trivial task to determ<strong>in</strong>e whether one is deal<strong>in</strong>g witha process nom<strong>in</strong>al or a result nom<strong>in</strong>al <strong>in</strong> a given example. <strong>The</strong>re are anumber of diagnostics that are helpful, if not foolproof. <strong>The</strong>se are collected<strong>in</strong> Grimshaw 1986:1. Process nom<strong>in</strong>als do not pluralize. Thus, the clipp<strong>in</strong>g of the grass isa process nom<strong>in</strong>al, but <strong>in</strong> the plural, the clipp<strong>in</strong>gs, it can only be aresult nom<strong>in</strong>al.2. Process nom<strong>in</strong>als do not occur with demonstrative determ<strong>in</strong>ers. Thus,?that exam<strong>in</strong>ation of the students occured aweek ago is dist<strong>in</strong>ctly odd,whereas that exam<strong>in</strong>ation is twenty pages long is ne.3. Result nom<strong>in</strong>als often require a determ<strong>in</strong>er. Consider: *exam<strong>in</strong>ationwas ten pages long, but p exam<strong>in</strong>ation of the students took ten hours.4. Process nom<strong>in</strong>als do not occur with of NP's. <strong>The</strong> adjunct of NP's onlyhas a concrete-possession read<strong>in</strong>g, which is <strong>in</strong>compatible with events:*the discovery of the vacc<strong>in</strong>e's occured atanopportune moment cf.the vacc<strong>in</strong>e's discovery occured at an opportune moment.<strong>The</strong> dist<strong>in</strong>ction between process and result nom<strong>in</strong>als is made clearly <strong>in</strong>Anderson and Grimshaw, but it is much more often completely ignored,with the result that many of the arguments <strong>in</strong> the literature concern<strong>in</strong>gderived nom<strong>in</strong>als are compromised. Two examples occur especially frequently:*John's belief to be <strong>in</strong>telligent is repeatedly cited as an illustrationthat there is no rais<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase, and *John's gift of Mary (of abook) is cited to show that there is no dative shift <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase. Neitherof these examples quite illustrate the <strong>in</strong>tended po<strong>in</strong>t, however. Bothbelief and gift are result nom<strong>in</strong>als, not process nom<strong>in</strong>als. Belief does notpreserve the argument structure of the verb:(110) John believed the story*John's belief of the storyAnd gift obviously denotes the object given it cannot denote the act ofgiv<strong>in</strong>g:(111) *[John's gift of a Rembrandt to the Fogg] took place yesterday


76 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCEWhat confuses matters somewhat is that belief and gift do take argumentsthat appear to correspond to verbal arguments:(112) a. the belief that John was <strong>in</strong>telligentb. the gift of a book to Mary<strong>The</strong>se arguments <strong>in</strong> fact fall under a nom<strong>in</strong>al paradigm, however. Resultnom<strong>in</strong>als fail to preserve the -grid of the verb from which theywere derived,but they may take modiers like those of similar concrete nouns(this is one factor which contributes to diculty at times <strong>in</strong> dist<strong>in</strong>guish<strong>in</strong>gprocess and result nom<strong>in</strong>als). Belief patterns with non-derived nouns liketheory:(113) the belief that John was <strong>in</strong>telligentthe theory that John was <strong>in</strong>telligentGift's arguments pattern with two dierent sets of non-derived nouns. <strong>The</strong>gift of a book has the argument-structure of nouns like tribute, honorarium:(114) agiftofabookan honorarium of a gold-<strong>in</strong>laid plaqueayearly tribute of a horseAgifttoMaryhas the argument-structure of non-derived nouns like present,letter:(115) a gift to Marya present toMarya letter to MaryIn short, one must be careful to dist<strong>in</strong>guish between arguments that patternwith nom<strong>in</strong>al paradigms, and those <strong>in</strong>herited from root verbs. Only processnom<strong>in</strong>als|nom<strong>in</strong>als that denote events|preserve the -grid of the rootverb.Two clos<strong>in</strong>g notes: rst, Belief and gift are typical of a large class ofderived nouns which have only result read<strong>in</strong>gs, namely, zero-derived nouns.Often, zero-derived nouns do not take modiers which even appear to correspondto verbal direct objects:(116) *a hit of the ball*John's kick ofthedog*the slap of the little brat*Mary's fright ofBill


5. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE 77Even when zero-derived nouns take of-complements, they consistently meetdiagnostics for be<strong>in</strong>g result, not process, nom<strong>in</strong>als:(117) a. John's fear of waterJohn's fearJohn's fears of failureb. a smear of pa<strong>in</strong>tasmearseveral smears of pa<strong>in</strong>tIt is also usually clear that the nom<strong>in</strong>al does not denote an action, butan object|though especially with nouns of mental state, it is all but impossibleto dist<strong>in</strong>guish between the \action" denoted by the verb, and themental state denoted by the result nom<strong>in</strong>al. For example, it is dicult todist<strong>in</strong>guish between the \action" of fear<strong>in</strong>g someth<strong>in</strong>g, and the mental stateof fear. 32Second, derived nom<strong>in</strong>als <strong>in</strong> -<strong>in</strong>g often behave dierently from otherderived nom<strong>in</strong>als. <strong>The</strong> two most salient dierences are that nom<strong>in</strong>als <strong>in</strong>-<strong>in</strong>g never allow passive, and they do allow particles:(118) a. the bomb<strong>in</strong>g of the citythe destruction of the city*the city's bomb<strong>in</strong>gthe city's destructionb. the expla<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g away of the problem*the explanation away of the problemBecause of these facts, zero-derived nom<strong>in</strong>als and nom<strong>in</strong>als <strong>in</strong> -<strong>in</strong>g arebest avoided <strong>in</strong> mak<strong>in</strong>g generalizations about the relation between derivednom<strong>in</strong>als and the verbs they derive from. <strong>The</strong> best nom<strong>in</strong>als to study areaxally derived|usually lat<strong>in</strong>ate|and clearly denote actions, not objects.With this <strong>in</strong> m<strong>in</strong>d, I turn to an exam<strong>in</strong>ation of the dierences betweennoun phrase and sentence.32 As po<strong>in</strong>ted out to me by R.Kayne, there is at least one apparently zero-derivednom<strong>in</strong>al which denotes an action, and otherwise appears to be a process nom<strong>in</strong>al, namely,capture. I submit, however, that capture is analyzed as a \cranberry" word, derivedaxally from the stem *capt, from which are also derived captor, captive. Capture thusactually patterns with failure, seizure, not with zero-derived nom<strong>in</strong>als (which are almostalways Anglo-Saxon).


78 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE5.2.bObligator<strong>in</strong>ess of Subject<strong>The</strong> subject is obligatory <strong>in</strong> the sentence, but not <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase:(119) *destroyed the citydestruction of the city5.2.cPleonasticsWhen there is no genu<strong>in</strong>e subject <strong>in</strong> the sentence, a pleonastic subject is<strong>in</strong>serted. This option is not available <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase:(120) a. there arrivedaman*there's arrival of a manb. it was proven that the earth is round*<strong>its</strong> proof that the earth is round<strong>The</strong>se two facts do clearly concern the specier of the noun phrase, notthe complement. But it appears that a reasonable account can be givenunder the DP-analysis, as sketched at the end of the previous section Ihave noth<strong>in</strong>g to add to my discussion there.5.2.dCase<strong>Noun</strong>s do not Case-assign their objects, hence they may not appear withbare-noun-phrase complements, unlike their verbal counterparts:(121) a. Caesar destroyed the cityb. *Caesar's destruction the cityIt is usually claimed that (b) is a well-formed d-structure, and that it is\saved" by a rule of of-<strong>in</strong>sertion, which applies to yield the well-formeds-structure Caesar's destruction of the city. Alternatively, wemaytake ofto be a Case-marker (K), rather as we argued for 's. Probably we shoulddist<strong>in</strong>guish the Case marked by 's and the Case marked by of: I will callthe former \genitive" and the latter \partitive", though with the caveatthat what I mean by \partitive" is precisely \the Case marked by of"\genitive1" and \genitive2" would perhaps be better, <strong>in</strong> be<strong>in</strong>g more neutral,but they would be harder to keep straight. <strong>The</strong> noun assigns partitive CaseD AGR assigns genitive Case. A KP generated <strong>in</strong> the object position of anoun can be headed by either a partitive or genitive case-marker the Caseit is actually assigned must agree with the Case marked, however, whichrequires it to raise to a position of genitive Case assignment if<strong>its</strong>howsgenitive mark<strong>in</strong>g.


5. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE 795.2.eRestrictions on Passive<strong>The</strong>re is a noun-phrase equivalent of passive, as we have noted. <strong>The</strong>reare additional restrictions on this movement, however, beyond those found<strong>in</strong> the sentence. Consider the follow<strong>in</strong>g examples, adapted from examplesnoted by Mona Anderson (1979): 33(122) a. Iknow algebraAlgebra is known by many peopleIcontemplated the day's events<strong>The</strong> day's events should be contemplated before sleep<strong>in</strong>gb. knowledge of algebra*algebra's knowledgecontemplation of recent events*recent events' contemplation<strong>The</strong> account given by Anderson|the only account given to date|is thatwhat is <strong>in</strong>volved is an \Aectedness Constra<strong>in</strong>t" on subcategorization frames,whereby only nouns denot<strong>in</strong>g actions which \aect" the denotata of thenouns' objects can be subcategorized for a bare-noun-phrase object. Non-\aective" nouns can be subcategorized only for genu<strong>in</strong>e (i.e., d-structure)of-PP's. S<strong>in</strong>ce only bare noun phrases, and not PP's, can undergo passive,passive can only occur with \aective" nouns. If this account is correct, itlocates the dierence <strong>in</strong> the complement structure of nouns.It is not entirely clear that the Aectedness Constra<strong>in</strong>t really constitutesa dierence between noun phrase and sentence. <strong>The</strong>re are, after all, verbswhich do not permit passive: resemble, weigh, cost. Itis<strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g thatnone of the nom<strong>in</strong>alizations of these verbs take objects:(123) a. John weighed 180 pounds*180 pounds were weighed by John*John's weigh<strong>in</strong>g/weight of 180 poundsb. John resembles his father*his father is resembled by John*John's resembl<strong>in</strong>g/resemblance of his father33 It is not entirely clear that knowledge is a process nom<strong>in</strong>al. Because of <strong>its</strong> Anglo-Saxon orig<strong>in</strong>s, and <strong>its</strong> similarity to clear result nom<strong>in</strong>als like fear, it is arguable that*algebra's knowledge is out because knowledge is a result nom<strong>in</strong>al. This would make ofalgebra a PP-modier, not a direct object, of knowledge. A similar argument cannot bebrought aga<strong>in</strong>st contemplation, however, so the paradigm stands.


80 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCEc. That book costs $20.00*$20.00 are cost by thatbook*That book's cost<strong>in</strong>g/cost of $20.00Iwould like to suggest that the objects of weigh, etc., are not direct objects,but measure adjuncts whichhave to some extent been made <strong>in</strong>to arguments,at least <strong>in</strong> that they are obligatory. We can either suppose that they dierfrom \true" arguments thematically or Case-theoretically: let us call themsimply \oblique" arguments, without decid<strong>in</strong>g whether \oblique" is to bedened as \bearer of oblique -role" or \bearer of oblique Case". <strong>The</strong>generalization then is that oblique arguments cannot be passivized, andobjects of nom<strong>in</strong>als cannot correspond to oblique arguments of verbs.5.2.fPsych <strong>Noun</strong>sA class of derived nom<strong>in</strong>als which consistently fail to take objects are the\psych" nouns:(124) a. Mary frightened JohnMary amused JohnMary angered JohnMary bored JohnMary liked JohnMary hated Johnb. *Mary's fright of John*Mary's amusement ofJohn*Mary's anger of John*Mary's boredom of John*Mary's like of John*Mary's hate of John<strong>The</strong> reason, however, is obviously that all the examples <strong>in</strong> (124b) are resultnom<strong>in</strong>als. All but two are zero-derived, and the axal examples, amusementand boredom, clearly refer to mental states, not acts: amusementcannot refer to the act of amus<strong>in</strong>g someone, and boredom cannot refer tothe act of bor<strong>in</strong>g someone. <strong>The</strong> question is then why no process psych nom<strong>in</strong>alsexist. If any class of nouns is to fail to have process nom<strong>in</strong>alizations,we would expect it to be nouns of mental state, <strong>in</strong>asmuch as their thematicstructure is so very unlike the canonical Agent-Patient structure. In fact, ifwe consider -<strong>in</strong>g nom<strong>in</strong>als, the examples of (124) divide <strong>in</strong>to a hierarchy ofwell-formedness when an of object is present roughly, the verbs with thegreatest element of causation are most grammatical:


5. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE 81(125) c. Mary's frighten<strong>in</strong>g of JohnMary's anger<strong>in</strong>g of John?*Mary's amus<strong>in</strong>g of John?*Mary's bor<strong>in</strong>g of John*Mary's lik<strong>in</strong>g of John*Mary's hat<strong>in</strong>g of JohnAnd if we consider examples like tempt or realize, that have two read<strong>in</strong>gs|one causative, one stative |we nd only the causative read<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the processnom<strong>in</strong>al:(126) a. I can tell that cake is tempt<strong>in</strong>g Johnthe devil tempted Jesusb. *the cake's temptation of Johnthe devil's temptation of Jesus(127) a. John realized his mistakeJohn realized his fondest dreamsb. *John's realization of his mistakeJohn's realization of his fondest dreamsIn short, it appears that process nom<strong>in</strong>als can only be built on verbmean<strong>in</strong>gs that <strong>in</strong>clude an element of agentivity, not on purely stative verbmean<strong>in</strong>gs. Purely stative verb mean<strong>in</strong>gs yield stative nom<strong>in</strong>als, which areuniformly result nom<strong>in</strong>als.Possibly, this generalization subsumes the Aectedness Constra<strong>in</strong>t. Consideran example like fear of cats. Fear is obviously a result nom<strong>in</strong>al, sowe must take of cats to be a PP modier that expresses, as it were, the\content" or \subject matter" of the mental state of fear. This presentsthe possibility of analyz<strong>in</strong>g knowledge of language <strong>in</strong> the same way: knowledgeis a result nom<strong>in</strong>al, and of language is a PP modier specify<strong>in</strong>g the\content" or \subject matter" of the mental state of know<strong>in</strong>g. Thus *language'sknowledge is out because language is not an argument,butamodifer,of knowledge, hence cannot passivize mutatis mutandis for *the proposal'scontemplation. <strong>The</strong> \object" of knowledge or contemplation is freelydeletable, which is consistent with their be<strong>in</strong>g result nom<strong>in</strong>als: 3434 However, knowledge and contemplation do seem to dier when they are denite:(i) a. [the knowledge of his impend<strong>in</strong>g doom] frightened him[the knowledge] frightened himb. [the contemplation of his impend<strong>in</strong>g doom] frightened him*[the contemplation] frightened him


82 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE(128) a. [knowledge of language] makes man man[knowledge] makes man manb. he's busy with [contemplation of the proposal]he's busy with [contemplation]At any rate, it seems clear that the question h<strong>in</strong>ges on dierences <strong>in</strong> thethematic structures of nouns and verbs, and is not relevant to the questionof the structure of the noun phrase specier.5.2.gRais<strong>in</strong>gRais<strong>in</strong>g (i.e., Rais<strong>in</strong>g to Subject) is possible <strong>in</strong> the sentence, but not <strong>in</strong> thenoun phrase.(129) a. John appeared to have leftJohn was believed to be <strong>in</strong>telligentJohn was likely to w<strong>in</strong>b. *John's appearance to have left*John's belief to be <strong>in</strong>telligent*John's likelihood to w<strong>in</strong>I will discuss these facts together with those <strong>in</strong> the next two paragraphs.5.2.hExceptional Case Mark<strong>in</strong>gExceptional Case Mark<strong>in</strong>g (Rais<strong>in</strong>g to Object) is found <strong>in</strong> the sentence, butnot <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase:(130) a. I believed John to be <strong>in</strong>telligentI expected John to w<strong>in</strong>b. *My belief John to be <strong>in</strong>telligent*My expectation/expectancy John to w<strong>in</strong>An alternative way to Case-mark objects of nouns is via of-<strong>in</strong>sertion,but this course is also unavailable for the noun phrases of (130b):(131) *My belief of John to be <strong>in</strong>telligent*My expectation of John to w<strong>in</strong><strong>The</strong>re is also a contrast with the passivization facts if we use pronouns <strong>in</strong>stead offull noun phrases, as po<strong>in</strong>ted out to me by R.Kayne: ??<strong>its</strong> contemplation (i.e., of hisimpend<strong>in</strong>g doom), *<strong>its</strong> knowledge. A more systematic <strong>in</strong>vestigation is called for.


5. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE 83It should be po<strong>in</strong>ted out that *my belief of John and *my expectation ofJohn are also ill-formed, contra p Ibelieve John, p I expected John. Likewise*John's belief t, etc., correspond<strong>in</strong>g to *John's belief to be <strong>in</strong>telligent, thoughp John was believed. This suggests that whatever is wrong with e.g. *John'sbelief to be <strong>in</strong>telligent is the same th<strong>in</strong>g as is wrong with the simpler *John'sbelief t, and has noth<strong>in</strong>g to do with rais<strong>in</strong>g. A ready suggestion is that theill-formedness of *John's belief t has the same source as the ill-formednessof *algebra's knowledge t. We could claim that John <strong>in</strong> Ibelieve John isnot an argument, but an oblique adjunct. (Actually, wemust group beliefwith weight, notknowledge: *Bill's weight of the package, *Bill's beliefof John, p Bill's knowledge of algebra.) However, this would not expla<strong>in</strong>why *John's belief to be <strong>in</strong>telligent is ill-formed: whatever prevents obliquenoun phrases from passiviz<strong>in</strong>g (Case clash, perhaps) should not preventthe argument John <strong>in</strong> John to be <strong>in</strong>telligent from mov<strong>in</strong>g to Spec of D andreceiv<strong>in</strong>g genitive Case.<strong>The</strong> proper generalization, I believe, is that nouns cannot take reducedclause complements, but only full CP complements. If nouns are <strong>in</strong>capableof licens<strong>in</strong>g bare-IP complements, then the noun would be <strong>in</strong>capable ofgovern<strong>in</strong>g the subject of the lower clause, hence <strong>in</strong>capable of Case-assign<strong>in</strong>git, account<strong>in</strong>g for the lack of ECM. Likewise, a raised subject would be<strong>in</strong>capable of govern<strong>in</strong>g <strong>its</strong> trace, which would thus violate the ECP.I will postpone discussion of why nouns should be <strong>in</strong>capable of tak<strong>in</strong>greduced-clause complements until I have presented the numerous othernoun-phrase/sentence dierences that fall under the same generalization.Note, though, that if the dierence is <strong>in</strong> the subcategorization/selectionalproperties of nouns and verbs, as I claim, then we do not need to assumedierences <strong>in</strong> the land<strong>in</strong>g sites of A-movement|i.e., the structure of thespecier|of noun phrases and sentences.5.2.iSmall ClausesAnother reduced clause which nouns do not take are small clauses|thoughthe unavailability of rais<strong>in</strong>g and Exceptional Case Mark<strong>in</strong>g are sucient <strong>in</strong>themselves to preclude any well-formed small clause structure <strong>in</strong> the nounphrase:(132) a. I believe JohnafoolI expect John <strong>in</strong> my oceb. *my belief John a fool*my expectation John <strong>in</strong> my ocec. *my belief of John a fool*my expectation of John <strong>in</strong> my oce


84 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE(133) a. John was believed a foolJohn was expected <strong>in</strong> my oce5.2.jb. *John's belief a fool*John's expectation <strong>in</strong> my oceDitransitivity<strong>The</strong>re are no ditransitive nouns (Dative Shift):(134) a. Igave Bill a bookIrented Bill a carI fed the cat d<strong>in</strong>nerb. *the rental of Bill (of) a carc. *the giv<strong>in</strong>g of Bill (of) a book*the rent<strong>in</strong>g of Bill (of) a car*the feed<strong>in</strong>g of the cat (of) d<strong>in</strong>ner(Gift is a result nom<strong>in</strong>al thus the ill-formedness of the frequently-cited *thegift of Bill (of) a car is out for entirely extraneous reasons. Rental doesnot appear to suer from this shortcom<strong>in</strong>g: cf. my rental of the car tookplace a full year ago.)This fact ts <strong>in</strong> with both generalizations I have put forward to now:the <strong>in</strong>ability of nouns to assign \partitive" Case (i.e., of) to argumentsthat receive oblique Case <strong>in</strong> the VP, and the <strong>in</strong>ability of nouns to takereduced clause complements. <strong>The</strong> lack of ditransitives falls under the lattergeneralization if we adopt an analysis <strong>in</strong> which double-object verbs takea \small clause" complement. Several such analyses have been proposed,<strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g those of Kayne (1984a), Larson (1986). <strong>The</strong> lack of ditransitivesfalls under the prohibition aga<strong>in</strong>st oblique arguments if we assume one ofthe two arguments is oblique. If we consider the contrast *the feed<strong>in</strong>g of thecat d<strong>in</strong>ner, p the feed<strong>in</strong>g of the cat, it seems to <strong>in</strong>dicate that the <strong>The</strong>me isthe oblique argument (it also appears to <strong>in</strong>dicate that \oblique" should bedened <strong>in</strong> terms of Case-assignment, not -assignment, <strong>in</strong>asmuch as thereare many examples with non-oblique <strong>The</strong>me arguments: e.g., the sell<strong>in</strong>g ofthe car.) On the other hand, the follow<strong>in</strong>g alternation <strong>in</strong>dicates that it isthe Goal argument which is oblique:(135) a. i. I presented the award to Johnii. I presented John with the awardb. i. my presentation of the award to Johnii. *my presentation (of) John with the award


5. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE 85<strong>The</strong> <strong>The</strong>me is embedded <strong>in</strong> a PP <strong>in</strong> (135.b.ii), hence could not be theoend<strong>in</strong>g argument.One possibility is to assume that feed has two dist<strong>in</strong>ct -grids: <strong>in</strong> feedthe cat, the cat receives the Patient -role, and <strong>in</strong> feed thecat d<strong>in</strong>ner, thecat receives the Goal -role. <strong>The</strong>n tak<strong>in</strong>g \oblique" to mean \Goal" wouldgive the right results. Another possibility is to follow Kayne (1984a) <strong>in</strong>extend<strong>in</strong>g the small-clause analysis of ditransitives to present [John withthe award].Another example which possibly belongs here is the contrast:(136) a. I believe the storyI believe Johnb. ??my belief of the story*my belief of Johnmy belief of the story is not very good, but it is clearly better than whenthe sentence with the goal argument is nom<strong>in</strong>alized.5.2.kObject ControlObject control constructions do not appear <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase:(137) a. I persuaded John to leaveI <strong>in</strong>structed John to leaveb. *my persuasion of John to leave*my <strong>in</strong>struction of John to leave(Other commonly-cited examples, like *my command of John to leave, *myorder of John to leave, are trivially ungrammatical by virtue of <strong>in</strong>volv<strong>in</strong>gzero-derived result nom<strong>in</strong>als.)One possibility is that these examples fall under the prohibition aga<strong>in</strong>stoblique arguments, assum<strong>in</strong>g that John is oblique: 35 It is true that exampleslike my persuasion of John are grammatical, but we might argue thatpersuasion, like feed, isambiguous between two frames, one which is a simpleaction verb, tak<strong>in</strong>g a direct object (Patient), and no object control, andthe second which takes an oblique Goal argument, and object control.(138) a. I persuaded John PtI persuaded John Goal to leave35 One is tempted to cite p my <strong>in</strong>struction to John to leave here, but that example isactually irrelevant, be<strong>in</strong>g clearly a result nom<strong>in</strong>al pattern<strong>in</strong>g with my command to Johnto leave, etc. Cf. *I <strong>in</strong>structed to John to leave.


86 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCEI coerced John PtI coerced John Goal to leaveb. my persuasion of John Pt*my persuasion of John Goal to leavemy coercion of John Pt*my coercion of John Goal to leaveIt is rather dicult to detect much dierence <strong>in</strong> the mean<strong>in</strong>gs of thesepairs, however, vis-a-vis the role of John. An alternative istoappealtotheprohibition aga<strong>in</strong>st small clauses, and analyze the examples of (138b) as:(139) my persuasion of John*my persuasion [ SC of John [ CP PRO toleave]]my coercion of John*my coercion[ SC of John [ CP PRO toleave]]5.2.lTough ConstructionsTough constructions are not available <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase:(140) a. John is tough to pleaseBill is easy to oendMary is pleasant tolookatb. *John's toughness to please*Bill's eas<strong>in</strong>ess to oend*Mary's pleasantness to look atIt is possible to assimilate these examples either to the examples <strong>in</strong>volv<strong>in</strong>goblique arguments, or to the examples <strong>in</strong>volv<strong>in</strong>g semi-clauses. Let usconsider the former alternative rst.It has been argued that there is a non-overt benefactive argument <strong>in</strong>tough constructions which controls the <strong>in</strong>nitival clause, correspond<strong>in</strong>g toan overt for-controller, as <strong>in</strong> John is tough for Bill i [PRO i to please], itis tough for Bill i [PRO i to please John]. If this is correct, we have thefollow<strong>in</strong>g structure, where e is the non-overt controller of PRO:(141) John j is tough e i [OP j PRO i to please t j ]If e is syntactically present, it is reasonable to consider it an oblique argument,as it is a for adjunct when it appears overtly, i.e., a \benefactive" or\ethical dative" adjunct.


5. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE 87A second possibility is that tough constructions are actually unaccusative<strong>in</strong> particular, that John is not -assigned by tough, but is the subject of asmall clause complement oftough:(142) e is tough [ SC John i [OP i PRO topleaset i ]]<strong>The</strong>re is some direct evidence <strong>in</strong> favor of this structure. First, there isthe fact that we dohave sentences like it is tough to please John, that seemto <strong>in</strong>dicate that the subject position of tough is not a -position. Further,recall the sentences (143):(143) a. I i gave the gun to Mugsy j PRO i,j to get rid of itb. I i gave the gun to Mugsy j OP PRO *i,j to get rid of tOn the basis of these sentences, we argued that a clause must be <strong>in</strong> a relationof mutual c-command with the antecedents of both an empty operator <strong>in</strong><strong>its</strong> specier, and PRO, if <strong>its</strong> subject is PRO. <strong>The</strong> PRO i read<strong>in</strong>g is ruled out<strong>in</strong> (143b) because, if the adjunct clause attaches to IP, the antecedent ofOP does not c-command OP, and if the adjunct clause attaches to VP, theadjunct clause does not c-command the antecedent ofPRO. On the PRO jread<strong>in</strong>g, if the adjunct clause attaches to VP, both the antecedent ofOPand the antecedent ofPRO c-command the adjunct clause, and the adjunctclause c-commands both of them, thus the structure is well-formed.If this analysis is correct, and if the <strong>in</strong>nitival clause is a complementoftough <strong>in</strong> John is tough to please, as <strong>in</strong>dicated by the fact that it is selectedby tough (cf. e.g. *John is necessary to please, to see that the <strong>in</strong>nitivalclause <strong>in</strong>deed subcategorizes the predicate), then the <strong>in</strong>nitival clause isattached under VP, andJohn must also orig<strong>in</strong>ate under VP.If we adopt Belleti & Rizzi's (1986) proposal that psych verbs are actuallydouble-object unaccusatives|i.e., that John feared Mary derives frome feared Mary John|we not only have a precedent for the analysis oftough movement proposed here, but it also seems possible to defend a verystrong thematic restriction on the position of arguments at d-structure,namely, that arguments are external at d-structure i they bear an \actor"or \agent" -role|crucially, not an \experiencer" -role. (\Agent" aloneappears to be too strong for cases of simple <strong>in</strong>transitives like sneeze, wherethe subject is an actor, but arguably not an agent.)<strong>The</strong>re is actually a third possibility: that tough nom<strong>in</strong>alizations areexcluded on both counts, oblique arguments and small clauses. Supposethat there is an empty controller of PRO, and that John orig<strong>in</strong>ates assubject of a small clause:(144) John j is tough e i [ SC t j [OP j PRO i to please t j ]]


88 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE<strong>The</strong> one y <strong>in</strong> the o<strong>in</strong>tment for all these alternatives is the example Maryis pretty to look at. Unlike Mary is pleasant to look at, there is no impersonalversion, *it is pretty to look at Mary, and pretty takes no for-phrase: *Maryis pretty for John to look at. My only suggestion is that Mary is pretty tolook at is formed on analogy with sentences built on synonyms of pretty, allof which otherwise t at least halfway<strong>in</strong>to the tough-construction paradigm(the lack offor adjuncts requires explanation, though):(145) a. the sun stream<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> is beautiful to look atthe sun stream<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> is lovelytolookat?the sun stream<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> is gorgeous to beholdthe sun stream<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> is breathtak<strong>in</strong>g to beholdthe sun stream<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> is pleasant tolookatthe sun stream<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> is nice to look at5.2.mb. it is beautiful to see the sun stream<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>it is lovely to see the sun stream<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>?it is gorgeous to see the sun stream<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>it is breathtak<strong>in</strong>g to see the sun stream<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>it is pleasant to see the sun stream<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>it is nice to see the sun stream<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>John's break<strong>in</strong>g his legOne curious dierence between sentence and noun phrase is the possibilitiesof <strong>in</strong>terpretation <strong>in</strong> the follow<strong>in</strong>g pair:(146) a. John's break<strong>in</strong>g his legb. John's break<strong>in</strong>g of his leg(a) can describe a situation <strong>in</strong> whichJohnun<strong>in</strong>tentionally breaks his leg (the\Experiencer" read<strong>in</strong>g) <strong>in</strong> (b), on the other hand, the strongly preferredread<strong>in</strong>g is that <strong>in</strong> which John <strong>in</strong>tentionally breaks his leg (the \Agent"read<strong>in</strong>g). (This is not precisely a dierence between sentence and nounphrase, but rather one between VP and NP|at least under my assumptionsabout the structure of gerunds.)It is possible to ascribe the semantic ambiguityof(146a)toasyntacticambiguity. Break can be either an action verb or an experiencer verb. Underthe agentive read<strong>in</strong>g, let us suppose that break is a simple transitive, butunder the experiencer read<strong>in</strong>g, let us suppose that break is a double-objectunaccusative. Under the latter read<strong>in</strong>g, John is non-agentive because itis underly<strong>in</strong>gly not a subject, but an object. <strong>The</strong> contrast<strong>in</strong>g d-structuresare:


5. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE 89(147) a. John broke his leg (agentive)b. e broke Johnhisleg (experiencer)(b) is parallel to the ditransitive structure of give. As with give, the secondobject (the \displaced" direct object) cannot be easily passivized: ??<strong>The</strong>book was given John, likewise, his leg was broken only has the agentiveread<strong>in</strong>g, where someone <strong>in</strong>tentionally broke John's leg.We can then subsume the unavailability of the experiencer read<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>the nom<strong>in</strong>al under either the prohibition aga<strong>in</strong>st obliques or the prohibitionaga<strong>in</strong>st small clauses, as with ditransitives. (It would fall under the prohibitionaga<strong>in</strong>st small clauses if we extended Kayne's or Larson's small-clauseanalysis of ditransitives to the structure of (147b).)Strik<strong>in</strong>g conrmation for this account comes from West Flemish. Inmany Germanic languages, there is an \ethical dative" that can be usedwith verbs of acquisition and deprivation. In <strong>English</strong> it is found only withverbs of acquisition, as <strong>in</strong> I'm go<strong>in</strong>g to get myself a new TV. In German, itis also found with verbs of deprivation:(148) dem K<strong>in</strong>d ist se<strong>in</strong> Fahrrad geklaut wordenthe child-DAT is his bike-NOM stolen become\the child's bike was stolen"As <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>, the direct object becomes the subject. In West Flemish, however,the \ethical dative" can become the subject, as discussed by LilianeHaegeman (1986):(149) Jan is zenen velo gepaktJan-NOM is his bike stolen\Jan's bike was stolen"Haegeman applies a battery of tests which show unambiguously that Janis the subject, not a topic, <strong>in</strong> (149): it agrees with the verb, it can bereplaced with a subject clitic, etc. This example diers from John brokehis arm, under the analysis I am propos<strong>in</strong>g, only <strong>in</strong> that it is passive, andnot ergative. Haegeman also gives \transitive ergative" examples:(150) a. Jan is zenen oarm gebrokenJan is his arm broken\Jan broke hisarm"b. Jan is zenen <strong>in</strong>kel verstuktJan is his ankle spra<strong>in</strong>ed\Jan spra<strong>in</strong>ed his ankle"


90 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCEc. Jan is zenen boek vergetenJan is his book forgotten\Jan forgot his book"Haegeman argues that these are unaccusatives, not <strong>in</strong>transitives, becausethe auxiliary is to be, not to have. 36 As such, they exactly match thestructure I propose for John broke his arm, and provide strik<strong>in</strong>g crossl<strong>in</strong>guisticevidence support<strong>in</strong>g that analysis.5.2.nPseudo-PassivePseudo-passive is not available <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase:(151) a. <strong>The</strong> dispute was settledA sum was settled onb. <strong>The</strong> dispute's settlement*A sum's settlement onUnder usual assumptions, the availability of pseudopassive depends on thepossibility of reanalysis between verb and preposition. This is then a thirddierence between nouns and verbs: nouns do not take oblique objects, donot take reduced clause complements, and do not reanalyze with prepositions.We can make this third prohibition more general if we follow Baker(1985b) <strong>in</strong> tak<strong>in</strong>g the \reanalysis" of pseudopassive to be <strong>in</strong> fact preposition<strong>in</strong>corporation. In general, it is not possible to <strong>in</strong>corporate <strong>in</strong>to nouns, butonly <strong>in</strong>to verbs. Pseudopassive is only a special case.Whichever analysis we choose, it seems clear that what is at stake is therelation between the noun and preposition, hence our analysis of specierstructure is not aected.5.2.oParticles, Particle MovementNeither particles nor particle movement are permitted <strong>in</strong> noun phrases:(152) a. he expla<strong>in</strong>ed/dened away the problemhe expla<strong>in</strong>ed/dened the problem away36 A question which Haegeman does not address is the fact that these ergatives areapparently identical to the structures she called passives earlier. <strong>The</strong> passives dierfrom German and Dutch passives <strong>in</strong> that the past participle of the passive auxiliary (tobecome) isabsent. I assume that this has brought about an accidental similaritybetweenpassive and ergative structures. At any rate, it is clear that the examples of (150) areergatives|especially because of example (150c): there is no possible source for it as apassive. <strong>The</strong> only candidate would be the nonsensical *Someone forgot John his book.


5. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE 91he separated out the impuritieshe separated the impurities outb. *his explanation/denition away of the problem*his explanation/denition of the problem away(cf. p his explanation/denition of the problem)*his separation out of the impurities*his separation of the impurities out(cf. p his separation of the component media)If we follow Kayne (1984b) and Gueron (1985) <strong>in</strong> analyz<strong>in</strong>g particle constructionsas small clauses, this fact, too, falls under the prohibition aga<strong>in</strong>streduced clause complements of nouns.5.2.pResultative Secondary PredicatesResultative secondary predicates are not permitted <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase: 37(153) a. We pa<strong>in</strong>ted the house redWe hammered the metal atWe shot him deadb. Our pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g the house redOur hammer<strong>in</strong>g the metal atOur shoot<strong>in</strong>g him deadc. *Our pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g of the house red*Our hammer<strong>in</strong>g of the metal at*Our shoot<strong>in</strong>g of him deadIf we adopt a small-clause analysis of ditransitives, it would be naturalto dist<strong>in</strong>guish resultative from depictive secondary predicates by treat<strong>in</strong>gresultatives as small clause complements, and depictives as simple adjuncts:37 Ihave had to illustrate with gerundive forms because I have been unable to nd anyverbs which take resultative clauses, and yield nom<strong>in</strong>als that take arguments. Almostno lat<strong>in</strong>ate verbs take resultative predicates, and almost no Anglo-Saxon verbs (whichare also for the most part zero-derived) yield nom<strong>in</strong>als that take arguments:(i) a. *We <strong>in</strong>jected him dead*We contused him senseless*We extruded the metal roundb. *Our pa<strong>in</strong>t of the house*Our hammer of the metal*Our shot of the escapee


92 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE(154) we pa<strong>in</strong>ted [ SC the house red]Mary pa<strong>in</strong>ted John [ AP nude]This would account for the contrasts between resultative and depictive secondarypredicates: resultatives predicate only of objects, never subjects, 38and resultatives apparently subcategorize the matrix verb: only a restrictedclass of verbs take resultative secondary predicates. Depictives, on the otherhand, can predicate of subjects as well as objects, and appear much morefreely, with nearly any verb. (154) would be no more dicult to <strong>in</strong>terpretthan ditransitives under a small clause analysis. It would dier fromditransitives, <strong>in</strong> fact, only <strong>in</strong> hav<strong>in</strong>g an understood \come to be" <strong>in</strong>steadof \come to have" <strong>in</strong> the small clause. We gave [John a book] would be<strong>in</strong>terpreted roughly as \we were the agents of an act of giv<strong>in</strong>g, whose causandumwas that John should come to have a book", and we pa<strong>in</strong>ted [thehouse red] would be roughly \we were the agents of an act of pa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g,whose causandum was that the house should come to be red".5.2.qObject PleonasticsPleonastics do not appear exclusively <strong>in</strong> subject position. <strong>The</strong>re are someobject pleonastics <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>, and they are plentiful <strong>in</strong> other languages,such as German. <strong>The</strong>y do not appear <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase, however:(155) a. I hate it when it snows on my French toastI lose it whenever she looks at me that wayI can't believe it that you've never listened to Twisted Sisterb. *my hatred of it when it snows on my French toast*my loss of it whenever she looks at me that way*my disbelief of it that that you've never listened to TwistedSister5.2.rConcealed QuestionsConcealed questions are not available <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase:(156) a. I considered your oerI considered sabotage38 Consider for <strong>in</strong>stance the contrast (i):(i)John drank himself i silly i*John i drank whisky silly i


5. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE 93I knew the factsI knew the timeb. my consideration of your oer*my consideration of sabotagemy knowledge of the facts*my knowledge of the time5.2.sIndirect QuestionsOver a broad range, <strong>in</strong>direct questions are unavailable <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase:(157) a. Iknow who cameI recollect who cameI determ<strong>in</strong>ed who cameI remember who cameb. *my knowledge who came*my recollection who came*my determ<strong>in</strong>ation who came*my remembrance who came<strong>The</strong>se are all good when of is <strong>in</strong>serted:(158) my knowledge of who camemy recollection of who camemy determ<strong>in</strong>ation of who camemy remembrance of who came5.2.tComplementizer Deletion<strong>The</strong> complementizers that and for can be deleted <strong>in</strong> the sentence, afterbridge verbs, but not <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase:(159) a. Iknow Bill cameI believe Bill cameI remember Bill cameI'd prefer Bill to do itb. *my knowledge Bill came*my belief Bill came*my remembrance Bill came*my preference Bill to do it


94 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCEc. my knowledge that Bill camemy belief that Bill camemy remembrance that Bill camemy preference for Bill to do it<strong>The</strong>se last four sets of facts (object pleonastics, concealed questions, <strong>in</strong>directquestions, that-deletion) I have no analysis of. I only note that thephenomena clearly concern only the complement of the noun, not <strong>its</strong> specier.In conclusion, I have shown|<strong>in</strong> rather more detail than was probablynecessary|that the many dierences between sentences and noun phrasesare dierences <strong>in</strong> the complements permitted by nouns and verbs. Threemajor generalizations are these: verbs, but not nouns, allow oblique argumentsverbs, but not nouns, take reduced clause complements and verbs,but not nouns, can be <strong>in</strong>corporated <strong>in</strong>to. <strong>The</strong>se dierences do not weighaga<strong>in</strong>st the DP-analysis, <strong>in</strong> that the parallelism between noun phrase andsentence structure envisioned under the DP-analysis centers on the structureof their speciers, not their complements also because these dierencesare for the most part selectional, not structural.


5. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE 955.3 Appendix: Reduc<strong>in</strong>g the DierencesIn this section, I would like to <strong>in</strong>dulge <strong>in</strong> some frankly speculative theoriz<strong>in</strong>g,the aim of which is to reduce the three major dierences between nounand verb identied <strong>in</strong> the previous section to one overarch<strong>in</strong>g dierence.<strong>The</strong>se are the cases we wish to account for: 39(160) a. *John's appearance to have leftb. *the appearance of John to have leftc. *my expectation of John <strong>in</strong> my oced. *my rental of Bill a carmy rental of the car*my feed<strong>in</strong>g of the cat d<strong>in</strong>nermy feed<strong>in</strong>g of the cate. the presentation of the award to John*the presentation of John with the awardf. *my persuasion of John to leavemy persuasion of Johng. *John's toughness to pleaseh. *John's break<strong>in</strong>g of his leg (under Experiencer read<strong>in</strong>g)i. *a sum's settlement onj. *the explanation away of the problem*the explanation of the problem awayk. *the shoot<strong>in</strong>g of John deadl. *my amusement of the childrenLet us set aside (i) for the moment, and consider the rema<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g cases,which fall under the prohibition aga<strong>in</strong>st (direct) oblique arguments and theprohibition aga<strong>in</strong>st reduced clauses. It seems that the cases potentially explicableunder the prohibition aga<strong>in</strong>st oblique arguments is a proper subsetof the cases explicable under the prohibition aga<strong>in</strong>st reduced clauses. Allcases receive at least a potential account under the prohibition aga<strong>in</strong>st reducedclauses, but several do not appear to <strong>in</strong>volve oblique arguments i.e.,39 <strong>The</strong>re are six other cases we have exam<strong>in</strong>ed, but which do not appear to fall underour \three generalizations", hence which are ignored <strong>in</strong> (160) namely, obligator<strong>in</strong>ess ofsubject, (subject) pleonastics, object pleonastics, concealed questions, embedded questions,and that-deletion.


96 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE(a), (b), (c), (j), (k) and (l). To substantiate this claim, we must verifythat there are no cases of s<strong>in</strong>gle oblique arguments (i.e., not <strong>in</strong> a ditransitiveconstruction, or a construction otherwise analyzable as a small clause)which are prohibited <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase. <strong>The</strong> examples that readily spr<strong>in</strong>gto m<strong>in</strong>d are also bad <strong>in</strong> the sentence, hence are irrelevant:(161) *the rental of Bill Goalbut: *I rented Bill Goal*the presentation of Bill Goalbut: *we presented Bill GoalIn fact, there are cases that we have already noticed where what is apparentlya Goal argument is good precisely when it occurs alone:(162) *the feed<strong>in</strong>g of the cat d<strong>in</strong>nerthe feed<strong>in</strong>g of the cat*my persuasion of Bill to leavemy persuasion of Bill*my <strong>in</strong>struction of Bill to clean upmy <strong>in</strong>struction of Bill (<strong>in</strong> the ner po<strong>in</strong>ts of hygiene)A few problematic cases do exist. First, we have already noted the contrastit weighs 100 lbs., *<strong>its</strong> weigh<strong>in</strong>g of 100 lbs.. In this case, though, itappears that we are deal<strong>in</strong>g with a constra<strong>in</strong>t above and beyond the prohibitionaga<strong>in</strong>st oblique arguments. Namely, 100 lbs. cannot passivize <strong>in</strong> thesentence, whereas the oblique arguments we have been concerned with otherwisedo passivize: *100 lbs. was weighed by the book, John was rented acar. A second problematic case is *my promis<strong>in</strong>g of John, cf. p IpromisedJohn, ?John was promised. This does seem to be a genu<strong>in</strong>e counterexample.But s<strong>in</strong>ce it is the only one I have found, I will assume there is somecomplicat<strong>in</strong>g factor I have not discovered. At worst, we could appeal to theprohibition aga<strong>in</strong>st oblique arguments for this <strong>in</strong>dividual case, even if wereduce it to the prohibition aga<strong>in</strong>st small clauses <strong>in</strong> all other cases.Let us beg<strong>in</strong> with ditransitives. It is the Goal argument which receivesthe verb's accusative case: it is the Goal argument, for <strong>in</strong>stance, whichmustappear adjacent to the verb, and it is the Goal argument which passivizes:(163) Igave Johnabook*I gave a book John


5. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE 97John was given a book*a book was given John (<strong>in</strong> American <strong>English</strong>)Someth<strong>in</strong>g special must be said about the way the second argument, the<strong>The</strong>me, receives Case. Baker (1985b) suggests that it does not receive Case,but is identied (hence passes the Case lter) by <strong>in</strong>corporat<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>to the verbat LF. I would like to suggest a modication of this account. Let us adopta small-clause analysis of the double-object construction. Further, let ussuppose that there is an abstract X 0 head of the small clause, as requiredby a strict <strong>in</strong>terpretation of X-bar theory:(164)IP/ \John VP/ \V XP| / \gave DP X'| / \Bill X DP| |e a bookLet us suppose that there is a special constra<strong>in</strong>t on such anempty head,namely, that it must be identied by <strong>in</strong>corporat<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>to the verb. So it isnot the second object which <strong>in</strong>corporates <strong>in</strong>to the verb, but the empty headtak<strong>in</strong>g the second object as <strong>its</strong> complement.It is not clear what syntactic category to assign X to. I assume that thesecond object is licensed by be<strong>in</strong>g -assigned and Case-assigned by X thismakes X appear to be a preposition, and the construction <strong>in</strong> question to bean \applicative", if Baker (1985b) is right <strong>in</strong> analyz<strong>in</strong>g applicatives as casesof preposition-<strong>in</strong>corporation. On the other hand, the small clause parallelsuggests treat<strong>in</strong>g X as an In. Another possibility would be that it is averb. We might treat X as a \proto-verb" that corresponds to the \have"part of the mean<strong>in</strong>g of give, and assigns the two -roles associated with thatpart of the mean<strong>in</strong>g of give, namely, the Goal (Possessor) and <strong>The</strong>me roles.<strong>The</strong> verb give is actually the comb<strong>in</strong>ation V+X, and does not correspond toa unique syntactic node until after <strong>in</strong>corporation has occured at LF. Thisexpla<strong>in</strong>s the obligator<strong>in</strong>ess of <strong>in</strong>corporation: X alone is not a word, and ifit did not <strong>in</strong>corporate, it could not be assigned <strong>its</strong> lexical properties, whichit possesses only by virtue of be<strong>in</strong>g a part of the word give.


98 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCEThis third alternative is <strong>in</strong>dist<strong>in</strong>guishable for practical purposes fromthe account presented <strong>in</strong> Larson (1987a). Larson assumes verb-rais<strong>in</strong>g,rather than \proto-verb" <strong>in</strong>corporation, but otherwise his structure is identicalto that of (164), with \V" substituted for \X": 40(165)IP/ \John VP/ \V VP| / \gave DP V'| / \Bill V DP| |t a bookLarson defends this analysis (<strong>in</strong> part) by appeal<strong>in</strong>g to a large range of tests,summed up <strong>in</strong> Barss & Lasnik (1986), that show that the <strong>in</strong>ner (<strong>in</strong>direct)object is actually higher <strong>in</strong> the structure than the outer (direct) object.<strong>The</strong> \small-clause" structure is one of the few conceivable analyses for thedouble-object construction that has the property that the <strong>in</strong>ner object assymetricallycommands the outer object.Larson prefers a verb-rais<strong>in</strong>g analysis over an <strong>in</strong>corporation analysis, <strong>in</strong>order to avoid the pitfalls of \lexical decomposition" he does not wish torepeat the mistakes of the generative semanticists <strong>in</strong> decompos<strong>in</strong>g give <strong>in</strong>tocause to come to have. However, the \proto-verb" approach I am propos<strong>in</strong>gis subtly, but fundamentally, dierent from lexical decomposition. <strong>The</strong>basic problem with the lexical-decomposition approach isthatitcannotaccount for the idiosyncratic properties of give that are not contributedby any of <strong>its</strong> components, cause, come-to, orhave. My view is that verbmean<strong>in</strong>gs are arranged <strong>in</strong> an <strong>in</strong>heritance lattice, such that <strong>in</strong>dividual verbs<strong>in</strong>deed possess idiosyncratic properties, but the properties they share withall other verbs of their class need not be stated <strong>in</strong>dividually for each verb,but once for the class-object that represents the entire verb class. 41 Agentiveverbs, for <strong>in</strong>stance, all <strong>in</strong>herit from a class-object that possesses two40 Larson also assumes NP's <strong>in</strong>stead of DP's I am gloss<strong>in</strong>g over that dierence forconsistency's sake. Another wr<strong>in</strong>kle to Larson's analysis which is not important for mypurposes is that he assumes the underly<strong>in</strong>g structure is actually John [ V e] a book gave(to) Bill, and \passive" applies <strong>in</strong> the lower VP (as wellasverb-rais<strong>in</strong>g out of the lowerVP) to yield the surface order.41 Inheritance lattices have been extremely well studied <strong>in</strong> the articial <strong>in</strong>telligence


5. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE 99or three -roles: Agent, Instrument, and Patient. Motion verbs <strong>in</strong>heritfrom a class-object that possesses the roles <strong>The</strong>me, Source, Goal. It isthese class-objects which I mean when I say \proto-verb". <strong>The</strong> agentiveverbclass-object is the proto-verb with roughly the content of \cause" themotion-verb class-object is the proto-verb with roughly the content of \go".It is important to understand that these \proto-verbs" or \archi-verbs" arenot the actual verbs cause and go. Rather, it is convenient to designatethem as \cause" and \go" because the agentive-verb class-object and themotion-verb class-object are present <strong>in</strong> \purest" form <strong>in</strong> the verbs causeand go, respectively: cause and go appear to <strong>in</strong>herit from the s<strong>in</strong>gle classesCAUSE (agentive class) and GO (motion class), respectively. <strong>The</strong> verbscause and go are dist<strong>in</strong>ct from the classes CAUSE and GO, however, anddo have some idiosyncratic properties they do not <strong>in</strong>herit from those classes.Averb may <strong>in</strong>stantiate more than one class. Dierent verbs <strong>in</strong>stantiat<strong>in</strong>gthe same classes may map the roles provided by those classes dierently.For example, one verb <strong>in</strong>herit<strong>in</strong>g from both the Agentive class and the Motionclass may map the Agent and <strong>The</strong>me roles onto the same position (y,for <strong>in</strong>stance), while another may map Patient and <strong>The</strong>me roles onto thesame position (throw, for <strong>in</strong>stance). Further, an <strong>in</strong>dividual verb can haveidiosyncratic properties, which it does not <strong>in</strong>herit from any class. An <strong>in</strong>dividualverb may also override properties provided by a class object. Fly,for <strong>in</strong>stance, <strong>in</strong>her<strong>its</strong> from CAUSE (arguably), but it overrides the Patientrole <strong>in</strong> the -grid it <strong>in</strong>her<strong>its</strong> from CAUSE, keep<strong>in</strong>g only Agent and Instrumentroles (he ew with a hang-glider). In short, view<strong>in</strong>g \proto-verbs" asverb class-objects avoids the problems of lexical decomposition as usuallyconceived. We can view give as conta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g the parts (<strong>in</strong>herit<strong>in</strong>g from theclasses) CAUSE, COME-TO, GO, without imply<strong>in</strong>g that give has only theproperties provided by these parts. This disarms Larson's major motivationfor adopt<strong>in</strong>g a verb-rais<strong>in</strong>g analysis <strong>in</strong> preference to an <strong>in</strong>corporationanalysis like that of (164).<strong>The</strong> analysis (164) is also rem<strong>in</strong>iscent of Chomsky's 1955 analysis ofsmall clauses. Chomsky suggested that the matrix verb and the smallclausepredicate form a complex predicate, and the small-clause predicateis subsequently extraposed, to yield the surface word order:(166) a. I consider-<strong>in</strong>telligent John =)b. I consider John <strong>in</strong>telligentIn the current framework, this would probably be revised so that (b) isliterature they are as basic to knowledge representation as constituent structure is tosyntax. Reasonable start<strong>in</strong>g po<strong>in</strong>ts for the <strong>in</strong>terested reader are W<strong>in</strong>ston (1984), Chapter8 Fahlman (1979b,a).


100 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCEs-structure, and (a) is not d-structure, but LF: i.e., <strong>in</strong>telligent <strong>in</strong>corporates<strong>in</strong>to consider. <strong>The</strong> analysis (164) diers from this hypothetical revision ofChomsky's analysis only <strong>in</strong> that it is not <strong>in</strong>telligent, but an abstract elementselect<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>telligent, which <strong>in</strong>corporates <strong>in</strong>to consider:(167)I [V consider [X e]] [XP John [X' [X t ] <strong>in</strong>telligent]]\__________________|<strong>The</strong>re is actually someth<strong>in</strong>g of an <strong>in</strong>accuracy <strong>in</strong> (167), <strong>in</strong> that, under theanalysis I have proposed, the verb consider is actually the V complex which<strong>in</strong>cludes X: X is part of the lexical entry of consider. In other words, it isonly at LF that there is a unique node correspond<strong>in</strong>g to the word consider.Thus verbs which take small clause complements select those complements<strong>in</strong> the strongest possible sense: the head of the complement is actually apart of the verb's lexical entry.Notice that, whatever the category of X, adopt<strong>in</strong>g the analysis (164)<strong>in</strong> eect generalizes the unavailability of the double-object construction <strong>in</strong>noun phrases with the impossibility of <strong>in</strong>corporat<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>to nouns, which wehad used to account for the lack of pseudo-passive ((i) of (160)). <strong>The</strong>account (164) also generalizes to (c), (e), (f), (g), (h), (k), and (l) of (160),under the analyses illustrated <strong>in</strong> (168):(168) c. *expectation [ XP of John X e [ PP <strong>in</strong> my oce]]e. *presentation [ XP of John X e [ PP with the award]]f. *persuasion [ XP of John X e [ CP PRO toleave]]g. *John's i toughness [ XP t i X e [ CP OP j PRO to please t j ]]h. *John's i break<strong>in</strong>g [ XP t i X e [ PP of his leg]]k. *shoot<strong>in</strong>g [ XP of John X e [ AP dead]]l. *my i amusement [ XP t i X e [ PP of the children]]A note about (h) and (l): these dier from the others <strong>in</strong> that I haveplaced the of on the second object, not the rst object. This is becausethese two cases derive from double-object unaccusative verbs, under theanalysis I am assum<strong>in</strong>g. Leav<strong>in</strong>g the rst object <strong>in</strong> <strong>its</strong> d-structure positionor leav<strong>in</strong>g the of o the second argument does not improve matters:(169) *the break<strong>in</strong>g of John his leg*the break<strong>in</strong>g his leg (put John <strong>in</strong> an awful x)


5. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE 101*the amusement of John the children*John's amusement the children(John's break<strong>in</strong>g his leg is grammatical, but deceptive: it is clearly a Poss<strong>in</strong>ggerund, not an Ing-of gerund. Only the Ing-of gerund is relevant to thequestion at hand.)<strong>The</strong> rema<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g cases are (a), (b), and (j) of (160): rais<strong>in</strong>g, <strong>in</strong>nitivalECM, and particles. (a) and (b) dier from the examples of (168) <strong>in</strong> thatthey <strong>in</strong>volve \S-bar deletion" <strong>in</strong>nitives, not small clauses. I would like toclaim that these complements are not IP's, but CP's. <strong>The</strong>y generalize withthe examples of (168) <strong>in</strong> that the empty complementizer is <strong>in</strong>corporated<strong>in</strong>to the matrix head, <strong>in</strong> order to be identied. <strong>The</strong> structure is thus:(170)[V consider [C e]] [CP [C t] [IP John to VP]]\__________|I assume that it is the empty complementizer which assigns accusative caseto the lower subject, John, much <strong>in</strong> the way that X assigns Case to thesecond object <strong>in</strong> double-object constructions.Rais<strong>in</strong>g and <strong>in</strong>nitival ECM are ungrammatical <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase,under this account, because they, too,<strong>in</strong>volve <strong>in</strong>corporation <strong>in</strong>to the matrixhead, which is illegal when that head is a noun.It is tempt<strong>in</strong>g to assume that the failure of complementizer deletion <strong>in</strong>noun phrases is also due to the requirement that the empty complementizerbe identied by <strong>in</strong>corporat<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>to the matrix verb. This is not obviouslypossible, however. If we took that course, we would be unable to dist<strong>in</strong>guishECM and control constructions:(171) I'd prefer+C i [ CP [ C t i ][ IP John to do it]]I expected+C i [ CP [ C t i ][ IP John to do it]]Possibly there is a way of resolv<strong>in</strong>g this quandary, and br<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g the lack ofcomplementizer deletion <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase under the prohibition aga<strong>in</strong>st<strong>in</strong>corporation as well but I leave it as an open question.<strong>The</strong> nal case is (160j), the lack of particles <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase. Kayne(1984b) argues that particle constructions are also to be analyzed as smallclausal, where the particle is a \little verb":(172) Ilooked [ PP the <strong>in</strong>formation [ P' up]]It would be natural to assume that the version Ilooked up the <strong>in</strong>formationis derived by <strong>in</strong>corporat<strong>in</strong>g up. Kayne givesanumber of arguments


102 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCEaga<strong>in</strong>st this hypothesis, however. For <strong>in</strong>stance, pronouns are permitted <strong>in</strong>the \particle-moved" construction, but not when the particle is adjacent tothe verb:(173) Ilooked [it up]*I looked-up itThis is unexpected if look up is a complex verb, as verbs can certa<strong>in</strong>ly takepronom<strong>in</strong>al objects: I sought it.Another argument is that particles allow modiers, whereas parts ofcompound verbs do not:(174) Ilooked it right up*I right-up-ended the chairAnother argument is that \sentential subjects" can appear with preposedparticles, but not postposed particles:(175) a. I po<strong>in</strong>ted out that John had leftb. *I po<strong>in</strong>ted [that John had left] outKayne generalizes the ill-formedness of (175b) with the ill-formedness ofsentential subjects of embedded clauses. He analyzes (175a) as <strong>in</strong>volv<strong>in</strong>gextraposition of the sentential subject. If we moved the particle leftward toderive (175a), on the other hand, that John had left would still be an embeddedsentential subject: the subject of the trace of out. Thus we would<strong>in</strong>correctly predict (175a) to be ill-formed. Kayne argues that the exampleswith \preposed" particles are uniformly derived by extrapos<strong>in</strong>g thesubject of the particle| obligatorily, with sentential subjects optionally,with noun-phrase subjects.I will follow Kayne <strong>in</strong> assum<strong>in</strong>g that \preposed" particle constructionsare derived by extraposition of the subject of the particle. I assume, though,that the particle does <strong>in</strong>corporate at LF, account<strong>in</strong>g for the unavailabilityof particle constructions <strong>in</strong> noun phrases.An unsolved problem for this analysis is why particles are good with-<strong>in</strong>g nom<strong>in</strong>als, but not with other derived nom<strong>in</strong>als:(176) a. i. the expla<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g away of the problemii. *the explanation away of the problemb. i. ?all the gyrat<strong>in</strong>g away they do (makes tops susceptible toidiosyncratic types of structural damage)ii. *all the gyration away ...


5. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE 103(176b) shows that it is not Case- or -assignment to the object that makes(176.a.ii) bad: the same contrast is to be found where an <strong>in</strong>transitive verbis <strong>in</strong>volved.One possible solution is that -<strong>in</strong>g nom<strong>in</strong>als exceptionally permit <strong>in</strong>corporation.This is clearly wrong, though, because -<strong>in</strong>g nom<strong>in</strong>als do notpermit <strong>in</strong>corporation <strong>in</strong> any of the other cases we have discussed:(177) *the expect<strong>in</strong>g of John to leave*the giv<strong>in</strong>g of John a book*the be<strong>in</strong>g tough to pleaseetc.Another possibilityisthat-<strong>in</strong>g nom<strong>in</strong>als with particles are <strong>in</strong> fact V+particlecompound verbs, <strong>in</strong> contrast to verbs appear<strong>in</strong>g with particles <strong>in</strong> the sentence.This would expla<strong>in</strong> why the \base" form of these nom<strong>in</strong>als is bad:*the look<strong>in</strong>g of the <strong>in</strong>formation up. 42 Most of Kayne's tests rul<strong>in</strong>g out aV+particle complex verb <strong>in</strong> the sentence are not helpful <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase,because they <strong>in</strong>volve other small clauses <strong>in</strong> addition to the particle thesewould be <strong>in</strong>dependently ruled out by the prohibition on small clauses <strong>in</strong>the noun phrase. <strong>The</strong> two tests that can be applied to -<strong>in</strong>g nom<strong>in</strong>als giveconict<strong>in</strong>g results: (178a) is ill-formed, <strong>in</strong>dicat<strong>in</strong>g that look<strong>in</strong>g up is not acomplex noun, but (178b) is also ill-formed, <strong>in</strong>dicat<strong>in</strong>g that up is not an<strong>in</strong>dependent word.(178) a. *the look<strong>in</strong>g up of itb. *the look<strong>in</strong>g right up of the <strong>in</strong>formationI leave this as an open question.To sum up the results of this section: given the analyses illustrated <strong>in</strong>(164) and (170), a signicant range of the constructions which are prohibited<strong>in</strong> the noun phrase can be unied under a s<strong>in</strong>gle generalization, namely,a prohibition aga<strong>in</strong>st <strong>in</strong>corporation <strong>in</strong>to nouns.42 As Kayne po<strong>in</strong>ts out, this example can also be ruled out by a prohibition aga<strong>in</strong>stPP's <strong>in</strong> subject position. He cites contrasts such as (i) to illustrate that this prohibitioncan force rightward movement of the subject, when it is a PP:(i)John teamed up with Bill*John teamed with Bill up<strong>The</strong>y stocked up on foodstus*<strong>The</strong>y stocked on foodstus up


104 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE


Chapter 3<strong>The</strong> Gerund1 IntroductionIn <strong>English</strong>, the construction <strong>in</strong> which the noun phrase looks most like asentence is the gerund, where by \gerund" we mean the class of structuresheaded by verb+<strong>in</strong>g. 43 <strong>The</strong> gerund| particularly the so-called \Poss-<strong>in</strong>g"construction|has long been a puzzle. Unlike the sentence-like noun phraseswe have exam<strong>in</strong>ed <strong>in</strong> other languages, the <strong>English</strong> Poss-<strong>in</strong>g construction isnot simply a noun phrase with sentential properties, but has a decidedlygrion-like structure. Its \forequarters" (i.e., <strong>its</strong> external distribution and<strong>its</strong> subject) are that of a noun phrase, while <strong>its</strong> \h<strong>in</strong>dquarters" (<strong>its</strong> complementstructure) are that of a verb phrase.<strong>The</strong> gerund is of great <strong>in</strong>terest <strong>in</strong> evaluat<strong>in</strong>g the DP-analysis, <strong>in</strong>asmuchas, if the DP-analysis is correct, it provides a simple and general structurefor the gerund, which appears otherwise so exceptional. Under the DPanalysis,we can take thePoss-<strong>in</strong>g construction to <strong>in</strong>volve D tak<strong>in</strong>g a VPcomplement,<strong>in</strong>stead of an NP complement. In this way, we account for theproperties of the Poss-<strong>in</strong>g construction, while ma<strong>in</strong>ta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g a strict versionof X-bar theory.<strong>The</strong>re is a respectable transformational literature on the gerund, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>gLees 1960, Rosenbaum 1967, Ross 1967, 1973, Emonds 1970, Wasowand Roeper 1972, Stockwell, Schachter, and Partee 1973, Thompson 1973,Horn 1975, Williams 1975, Schachter 1976, Reuland 1983, Baker 1985c.In the earlier work, it was assumed that all gerunds were sentence trans-43 In traditional usage, the term gerund usually refers to the noun <strong>in</strong> -<strong>in</strong>g, not tothe construction headed by such a noun (see e.g. Poutsma (1923)). Current usage isfrequently more lax, apply<strong>in</strong>g the term gerund both to the noun <strong>in</strong> -<strong>in</strong>g andtothenounphrase headed (<strong>in</strong> a pre-theoretic sense) by N <strong>in</strong>g . I follow the more liberal usage here.105


106 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUNDforms. <strong>The</strong> \lexicalist hypothesis" of Chomsky 1970 paved the way for anon-sentential treatment ofPoss-<strong>in</strong>g and he argued explicitly for a nonsententialtreatment of gerunds like the call<strong>in</strong>g of the roll. Emonds 1970claimed that Poss-<strong>in</strong>g gerunds were never dom<strong>in</strong>ated by Satany levelof derivation this position was apparently not widely adopted until themid-seventies, however. Horn (1975) and Schachter (1976) both argue forthis position Schachter's analysis appears to have become standard (it isadopted, for example, <strong>in</strong> Chomsky 1981). 44<strong>The</strong> paradigmatic sentence|tensed S with that complementizer|andthe paradigmatic noun phrase|a simple concrete noun phrase like therock|havevery dist<strong>in</strong>ct properties both <strong>in</strong>ternally and externally, i.e., withregard both to their structure and distribution. As Ross 1973 po<strong>in</strong>ts out,though, there is a range of structures possess<strong>in</strong>g both sentence and nounphraseproperties. Ross argued that these constructions form a cont<strong>in</strong>uum,of which tensed S and concrete noun phrase are the endpo<strong>in</strong>ts: <strong>in</strong> orderof <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>g \noun<strong>in</strong>ess", tensed S, <strong>in</strong>direct question, <strong>in</strong>nitive, Acc-<strong>in</strong>g,Poss-<strong>in</strong>g, action nom<strong>in</strong>al (\Ing-of"), derived nom<strong>in</strong>al, concrete noun. Undermore common assumptions, there is a cut between sentence and nounphrase, and exceptional properties of atypical constructions must be accountedfor <strong>in</strong> some other way. <strong>The</strong> generally accepted cut, at least s<strong>in</strong>ceReuland 1983, is between Acc-<strong>in</strong>g (the most noun-phrase-like sentence) andPoss-<strong>in</strong>g (the most sentence-like noun phrase).1.1 <strong>The</strong> Range of Gerund Constructions<strong>The</strong>re are a number of dist<strong>in</strong>ct structures <strong>in</strong> which the gerund appears. Inthis section, I would like tosurvey them. In com<strong>in</strong>g sections, I will focusmore narrowly on the Poss-<strong>in</strong>g construction.Discrim<strong>in</strong>at<strong>in</strong>g at a fairly ne gra<strong>in</strong>, we can dist<strong>in</strong>guish at least theseuses of V+<strong>in</strong>g:1. Present Participlea. After progressive beb. As pre- or post-nom<strong>in</strong>al modierc. In adjunct clause (sometimes with nom<strong>in</strong>ative or accusative subject)2. (Argumental) \Acc-<strong>in</strong>g"44 Horn and Schachter appear to come <strong>in</strong>dependently to the conclusion that Poss<strong>in</strong>gis a noun phrase at all levels. Both claim the non-transformational analysis as an<strong>in</strong>novation, and neither <strong>in</strong>cludes the other <strong>in</strong> his bibliography.


1. INTRODUCTION 1073. \PRO-<strong>in</strong>g"4. \Poss-<strong>in</strong>g"5. \Ing-of"Traditionally, (1) is dist<strong>in</strong>guished from (2)-(5), the former be<strong>in</strong>g namedthe Participle, the latter, the Gerund. I will not be much concerned aboutthe participle. (2)-(4) are dist<strong>in</strong>guished from (5) <strong>in</strong> that (5), Ing-of, appearsto <strong>in</strong>volve a simple deverbal noun, and lacks the verbal characteristics tobe found <strong>in</strong> the other cases. (2) Acc-<strong>in</strong>g and (4) Poss-<strong>in</strong>g are dist<strong>in</strong>guishedchiey <strong>in</strong> the Case which is assigned to the subject of the gerund: Accusative<strong>in</strong> Acc-<strong>in</strong>g, Genitive <strong>in</strong>Poss-<strong>in</strong>g. PRO-<strong>in</strong>g diers from Poss-<strong>in</strong>gand Acc-<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> lack<strong>in</strong>g an overt subject. It is an open question whether thestructure of PRO-<strong>in</strong>g is actually the same as that of Poss-<strong>in</strong>g, Acc-<strong>in</strong>g, ormay have either structure depend<strong>in</strong>g on context. Less likely, though not tobe ruled out a priori, is that PRO-<strong>in</strong>g has a structure dist<strong>in</strong>ct from that ofeither Acc-<strong>in</strong>g or Poss-<strong>in</strong>g.Elim<strong>in</strong>at<strong>in</strong>g the participle, then, and assum<strong>in</strong>g provisorily that PRO-<strong>in</strong>gcollapses with either Acc-<strong>in</strong>g, Poss-<strong>in</strong>g, or both, we have three basic typesof gerund construction: Poss-<strong>in</strong>g, Acc-<strong>in</strong>g, and Ing-of.1.2 Reuland's Analysis of Acc-<strong>in</strong>g<strong>The</strong> most thorough recent analysis of the Acc-<strong>in</strong>g construction is that ofReuland (1983). I adopt his characterization of Acc-<strong>in</strong>g at face value, for thetime be<strong>in</strong>g, to provide a backdrop aga<strong>in</strong>st which to compare the propertiesof Poss-<strong>in</strong>g, which ismychief concern. I oer a new analysis of Acc-<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>section 6.<strong>The</strong>se are the most important characteristics of the Acc-<strong>in</strong>g construction:1. <strong>The</strong> subject receives accusative case: \We approve of him study<strong>in</strong>gl<strong>in</strong>guistics"2. <strong>The</strong> subject alternates with PRO: \We approve ofPRO study<strong>in</strong>gl<strong>in</strong>guistics"3. <strong>The</strong> Acc-<strong>in</strong>g clause must appear <strong>in</strong> a Case-marked position.4. <strong>The</strong> subject takes scope with<strong>in</strong> the Acc-<strong>in</strong>g clause: \I counted on noone com<strong>in</strong>g" vs. \I counted on no one to come"5. No overt complementizer, no overt wh <strong>in</strong> Comp.


108 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUND6. No rais<strong>in</strong>g from subject: \*John was hated hav<strong>in</strong>g to leave sosoon"7. Wh-movement from subject permitted: \Who did you approve oftstudy<strong>in</strong>g l<strong>in</strong>guistics"8. Anaphors permitted <strong>in</strong> subject position: \We anticipated each otherw<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g his race"9. Acc-<strong>in</strong>g can be selected for.Reuland accounts for these facts by propos<strong>in</strong>g that the Acc-<strong>in</strong>g constructionis a CP with an empty Complementizer, select<strong>in</strong>g an IP headedby -<strong>in</strong>g. -<strong>in</strong>g is a nom<strong>in</strong>al element (when Acc-<strong>in</strong>g is an argument), andrequires Case. It \shares" that Case with <strong>its</strong> subject. 45 -Ing lowers ontothe verb via ax-hopp<strong>in</strong>g, or \Rule R" of Chomsky 1981. If it lowers <strong>in</strong>the syntax, no Case can be assigned to the subject, the subject positionis ungoverned, and PRO appears. If it does not lower until PF, PRO isexcluded, and the subject receives accusative Case. -Ing does not countas a Subject (<strong>in</strong> the b<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g theory of Chomsky 1981) for the subject, bystipulation. A matrix verb can govern IP and <strong>its</strong> head -<strong>in</strong>g across an emptycomplementizer, but not the subject of -<strong>in</strong>g, as-<strong>in</strong>g counts as a closer governor.For this reason, the ECP is violated if rais<strong>in</strong>g is attempted fromthe subject position, or if one attempts to raise the subject out of the Acc<strong>in</strong>gclause by QR. Wh-movement out of Acc-<strong>in</strong>g is permitted, on the otherhand, because it can use the empty Compasan<strong>in</strong>termediate land<strong>in</strong>g sitethis option is not available to A-movement and QR.2 <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong> <strong>Aspect</strong>s of Poss-<strong>in</strong>gAs the rst order of bus<strong>in</strong>ess, I would like to review the evidence whichleads us to the conclusion that Poss-<strong>in</strong>g gerunds are noun phrases, whileAcc-<strong>in</strong>g gerunds are sentences.2.1 External evidence2.1.aDistribution<strong>The</strong> rst class of evidence <strong>in</strong>dicat<strong>in</strong>g that Poss-<strong>in</strong>g is a noun phrase andnot a sentence, is <strong>its</strong> external distribution. <strong>The</strong>re are a numberofpositions45 Though the morphological case which appears on the subject of Acc-<strong>in</strong>g may dierfrom the abstract Case assigned to the Acc-<strong>in</strong>g phrase as a whole: as for <strong>in</strong>stance whenthe Acc-<strong>in</strong>g construction appears <strong>in</strong> subject position, receiv<strong>in</strong>g nom<strong>in</strong>ative Case, butassign<strong>in</strong>g accusative Case to <strong>its</strong> own subject. Reuland oers no explanation for thisdiscrepancy.


2. NOUN PHRASE ASPECTS OF POSS-ING 109from which sentences are excluded Poss-<strong>in</strong>g does appear <strong>in</strong> these positions.<strong>The</strong>se positions <strong>in</strong>clude (a) object of preposition, (b) subject of a sentencewhere Subject-Auxiliary Inversion has applied, (c) subject of an embeddedsentence, (d) subject of a sentence follow<strong>in</strong>g a sentence-<strong>in</strong>itial adverb,(e) topic position, 46 (f) cleft position:(179) a. I learned about John's weakness for stogiesI learned about John's smok<strong>in</strong>g stogiesI learned about John smok<strong>in</strong>g stogies*I learned about that John smoke(s) stogies*I learned about (for John) to smoke stogiesb. Does John's weakness for stogies bother youWould John's smok<strong>in</strong>g stogies bother you?Would John smok<strong>in</strong>g stogies bother you*Does that John smokes stogies bother you*Would (for John) to smoke stogies bother you46 As Horn (1975) notes, topicalization of a clause is possible, curiously, if it orig<strong>in</strong>atesas a sentential subject:(i)*That John died we believed(ii) That John died we believed to be horribleThis is especially curious s<strong>in</strong>ce the putative source is ungrammatical:(iii)*We believed that John died to be horribleDescriptively, when a sentential subject leaves <strong>its</strong> d-structure position, it can eithermove leftward and leave an empty category, or it can move rightward and leave anovertpleonastic. If it is unable to leave a pleonastic, it is also unable to move leftward andleave an empty category. In this regard, consider cases where an object pleonastic ispossible:(iv)(v)(vi)We were sure of it that John would w<strong>in</strong>?That John would w<strong>in</strong> we were sure ofYou can count on it that John will w<strong>in</strong>?That John will w<strong>in</strong> you can count onI said it rst that John would w<strong>in</strong>?That John would w<strong>in</strong> I said rst<strong>The</strong> generalization breaks down with examples like the follow<strong>in</strong>g:(vii)(viii)We resented it that John was given the prize*That John was given the prize we resentedI hate it when it snows on my French toast*When it snows on my French toast I hate


110 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUNDc. I believe that John's weakness for stogies bothers youIbelieve that John's smok<strong>in</strong>g stogies would bother you?I believe that John smok<strong>in</strong>g stogies would bother you*I believe that that John smokes stogies bothers you*I believe that (for John) to smoke stogies would bother youd. Perhaps John's weakness for stogies bothers youPerhaps John's smok<strong>in</strong>g stogies would bother youPerhaps John smok<strong>in</strong>g stogies would bother you??Perhaps that John smokes stogies bothers you??Perhaps (for John) to smoke stogies would bother youe. John's weakness for stogies I can't abideJohn's smok<strong>in</strong>g stogies I can't abide?John smok<strong>in</strong>g stogies I can't abide*That John smokes stogies I can't believe*For John to smoke stogies I won't permitf. It's John's weakness for stogies that I can't abideIt's John's smok<strong>in</strong>g stogies that I can't abideIt's John smok<strong>in</strong>g stogies that I can't abide*It's that John smokes stogies that I can't believe*It's for John to smoke stogies that I won't permitAcc-<strong>in</strong>g gerunds present the least serious violation. On the basis ofthis evidence alone, <strong>in</strong> fact, one can make a case for <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g Acc-<strong>in</strong>gwith Poss-<strong>in</strong>g as a noun phrase. <strong>The</strong> degraded status of Acc-<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> (b)-(f) might be ascribed to some problem with accusative Case assignment <strong>in</strong>these contexts, or simply to the generally slightly marg<strong>in</strong>al status of Acc<strong>in</strong>g.In section 6 I will oer an analysis which predicts that Acc-<strong>in</strong>g has thedistribution of a noun phrase, but no other noun phrase properties. Untilthen, I leave thebehavior of Acc-<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the paradigm (179) as an anomaly.At any rate, the contrast between simple noun phrase and Poss-<strong>in</strong>g, onthe one hand, and <strong>in</strong>nitives and tensed clauses, on the other, illustratesthe po<strong>in</strong>t at hand: that Poss-<strong>in</strong>g has the distribution of a noun phrase, notthat of a sentence.Another irregularityisthebehavior of <strong>in</strong>direct questions, which patternlike noun phrases <strong>in</strong> some contexts:(180) a. I heard about what you didb. the knowledge (*of) that John camethe knowledge *(of) who John saw


2. NOUN PHRASE ASPECTS OF POSS-ING 111Two possibilities are (1) that <strong>in</strong>direct questions <strong>in</strong> these contexts sharesometh<strong>in</strong>g of the structure of headless relatives, which are arguably nounphrases, or (2) that there is a [+wh] AGR <strong>in</strong> Comp that licenses wh-words<strong>in</strong> Spec of C, and this AGR supplies CP with certa<strong>in</strong> nom<strong>in</strong>al features. 47 Iwill not pursue the issue here.<strong>The</strong>re is one noun phrase position <strong>in</strong> which gerunds dopnot appear,namely, subject of noun phrase: *stagnat<strong>in</strong>g's evils (Cf. stagnation'sevils.) This is due to other factors, though. Note that -<strong>in</strong>g forms do notmake good possessors even when they are clearly nouns:(181) *[the s<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g]'s aect on them was heartwarm<strong>in</strong>g*[the riot<strong>in</strong>g]'s polarization of the country2.1.bAgreement<strong>The</strong> Poss-<strong>in</strong>g gerund also diers from sentences <strong>in</strong> that it \bears agreement":i.e., conjo<strong>in</strong>ed gerunds trigger plural agreementontheverb, whereaswith conjo<strong>in</strong>ed sentential subjects, the verb shows default s<strong>in</strong>gular agreement:(182). (Aga<strong>in</strong>, note that Acc-<strong>in</strong>g patterns with sentences, not Poss<strong>in</strong>g.)(182) a. That John came and that Mary left bothers/*bother meb. John com<strong>in</strong>g (so often) and Mary leav<strong>in</strong>g (so often) bothers/*bothermec. John's com<strong>in</strong>g and Mary's leav<strong>in</strong>g *bothers/bother me47 Possibly, the AGR <strong>in</strong> Comp acquires these nom<strong>in</strong>al features <strong>in</strong> turn from the wh-wordit agrees with|or we could take the more traditional l<strong>in</strong>e that wh-words occupy Comp.It might be objected that not all wh-words are noun phrases, but the Case requirementrema<strong>in</strong>s:(i)I heard about what you didI heard about why you did itthe knowledge *(of) what you didthe knowledge *(of) why you did itWe can follow Larson (1985), however, <strong>in</strong> tak<strong>in</strong>g wh-words like why, how, tobenounphrases that perform adverbial functions, on a par with \bare-NP adverbs" like yesterday,last year. Wewould need to assume that the \<strong>in</strong>herent Case" these words possess, underLarson's analysis, is not passed on to the CP they appear <strong>in</strong>, a plausible assumption. Notethat with true PP's as wh-phrases, <strong>in</strong>direct questions do not show the same properties:(ii)*I heard about <strong>in</strong> what way you did it*the knowledge (of) <strong>in</strong> what way you did it


112 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUNDWe can account for this fact if we assume, as is natural, that AGR canco<strong>in</strong>dex with nom<strong>in</strong>al elements, but not with sentences. An \unbound"AGR shows default s<strong>in</strong>gular agreement. 482.1.cLong-distance B<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>gF<strong>in</strong>ally, Acc-<strong>in</strong>g and Poss-<strong>in</strong>g gerunds show dierences with regard to longdistanceb<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g of their subjects: such b<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g is possible <strong>in</strong> noun phrases,and <strong>in</strong> Poss-<strong>in</strong>g gerunds, but not <strong>in</strong> Acc-<strong>in</strong>g gerunds:(183) a. they thought that each other's giv<strong>in</strong>g up the ship was forgivable?*they thought thateach other giv<strong>in</strong>g up the ship was forgivableb. they thought thateach other's desertion was forgivablec. ?*they thought thatforeach other to desert would be forgivable(cf. ?they thought that for John to desert would be forgivable)2.2 Internal evidenceIn this section, I turn to the aspects of the <strong>in</strong>ternal structure of Poss-<strong>in</strong>gthat <strong>in</strong>dicate that it is a noun phrase.2.2.aSubjectWith regard to their <strong>in</strong>ternal structure, gerunds look like noun phrases becauseof the properties of their subject. First, unlike subjects of sentences,subjects of gerunds bear genitive Case.Secondly, as noted by Horn (1975) and Reuland (1983), there are certa<strong>in</strong>semantic restrictions on the subject of Poss-<strong>in</strong>g which makes it look likeanyother genitive noun-phrase specier. In particular, <strong>in</strong>animate subjects makepoor possessors:(184) a. ??the refrigerator's doorJohn's doorb. ?we were very upset at the refrigerator's tipp<strong>in</strong>g overwe were very upset at the refrigerator tipp<strong>in</strong>g overc. *we were very upset at our idea's be<strong>in</strong>g unfairly criticizedwe were very upset at our idea be<strong>in</strong>g unfairly criticized48 Alternatively, sentences, but not noun phrases, are forced to topicalize out of subjectposition (see Koster (1978), Stowell (1981)), and the trace left beh<strong>in</strong>d always has defaultnumber features.


2. NOUN PHRASE ASPECTS OF POSS-ING 113Likewise, idiom chunks are not very happy <strong>in</strong> the possessor:(185) a. *I was irked at advantage's be<strong>in</strong>g taken of John's situationb. *<strong>The</strong> outcome justied much's be<strong>in</strong>g made of Calv<strong>in</strong>'s foresight<strong>The</strong> evidence of (184) must be taken with a gra<strong>in</strong> of salt, however. <strong>The</strong>reare perfectly good Poss-<strong>in</strong>g gerunds where the possessor is not animate andconcrete:(186) We would prefer <strong>its</strong> not ra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g just nowWe might also cite the classic example, the city's destruction. Possibly, thecontrast <strong>in</strong> (185b) amounts to no more than a (weak) stylistic tendency toprefer Acc-<strong>in</strong>g over Poss-<strong>in</strong>g when the subject is non-pronom<strong>in</strong>al (as noted,for example, by Poutsma (1923)).Thirdly, the Poss-<strong>in</strong>g genitive behaves like a possessor <strong>in</strong> the requirementthat it be head-nal: 49(187) a. ?a friend of m<strong>in</strong>e's new house*a friend of the little boy's new bicycle*the man responsible's briefcase*the man who left early's briefcaseIwas upset at ...b. *a friend of m<strong>in</strong>e's leav<strong>in</strong>g early*a friend of the little boy's leav<strong>in</strong>g early*the man responsible's leav<strong>in</strong>g early*the man who came late's leav<strong>in</strong>g earlyIwas upset at ...c. a friend of m<strong>in</strong>e leav<strong>in</strong>g earlya friend of the little boy leav<strong>in</strong>g earlythe man responsible leav<strong>in</strong>g earlythe man who came late leav<strong>in</strong>g early49 Examples like thoseIhave starred here are frequently produced <strong>in</strong> conversation, andit is arguable that they are not ungrammatical, but only bad style. Whatever the statusof the deviance of (187a-b), though, it is their contrast with the perfectly acceptable(187c) that is relevant for the po<strong>in</strong>t at hand.


114 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUND2.2.bSpecicityFurther, extraction from gerunds shows specicity eects. In this gerundscontrast m<strong>in</strong>imally with Acc-<strong>in</strong>g constructions. Consider:(188) a. We remember him describ<strong>in</strong>g Romeb. We remember his describ<strong>in</strong>g Romec. the city thatweremember him describ<strong>in</strong>g td. *the city that we remember his describ<strong>in</strong>g t<strong>The</strong> ungrammaticality of (d) can be accounted for by assimilat<strong>in</strong>g it tospecicity eects <strong>in</strong> extraction from noun phrases:(189) Who did you see a picture of t*Who did you see his picture of tAn alternative analysis is that specicity isnot<strong>in</strong>volved <strong>in</strong> the examplesof (188), but simple subjacency. IfthePoss-<strong>in</strong>g construction, but notthe Acc-<strong>in</strong>g construction, <strong>in</strong>volves a noun phrase (DP), then (188d) couldpotentially be subsumed under the Complex <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong> Constra<strong>in</strong>t.2.2.cPied Pip<strong>in</strong>gPoss-<strong>in</strong>g gerunds conta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g wh subjects can front under pied-pip<strong>in</strong>g notso for Acc-<strong>in</strong>g gerunds. This groups Poss-<strong>in</strong>g with noun phrases (190b) andAcc-<strong>in</strong>g with sentences (190c):(190) a. the man [whose irt<strong>in</strong>g with your wife] you took such exceptionto*the man [who irt<strong>in</strong>g with your wife] you took such exceptiontob. the man [whose op<strong>in</strong>ions] you took such exception toc. *the man [(for) who to leave early] you would have preferred2.2.dScope<strong>The</strong> subject of Poss-<strong>in</strong>g gerunds, like the subject of noun phrases, can takewide scope that of Acc-<strong>in</strong>g strongly prefers narrow scope:(191) a. John disapproves of everyone's tak<strong>in</strong>g a day o ( p wide)John disapproves of everyonetak<strong>in</strong>gadayo (* wide)


2. NOUN PHRASE ASPECTS OF POSS-ING 115b. John disapproves of everyone's happ<strong>in</strong>ess ( p wide)c. John prefers everyone to take adayo (* wide)This is expla<strong>in</strong>ed if (1) QR cannot cross a barrier nor move Comp-to-Comp, and (2) Acc-<strong>in</strong>g gerunds have a CP-IP structure with an emptycomplementizer. On the assumption that the subject of the noun phrase isembedded under only one maximal projection (DP) and not two (CP andIP), it is free to move out.2.2.e<strong>Sentential</strong> AdverbialsF<strong>in</strong>ally, it is usually assumed (<strong>in</strong> particular, by Williams (1975), Jackendo(1977), and Reuland (1983)) that sentential adverbials are not very good<strong>in</strong> Poss-<strong>in</strong>g gerunds, but that they are good <strong>in</strong> sentences, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g Acc-<strong>in</strong>ggerunds:(192) a. John probably be<strong>in</strong>g a spy, Bill thought it wise to avoid him(Reuland 1983)?*John's probably be<strong>in</strong>g a spy made Bill th<strong>in</strong>k it wise to avoidhimb. John fortunately know<strong>in</strong>g the answer, I didn't fail the test?*John's fortunately know<strong>in</strong>g the answer kept me from fail<strong>in</strong>gThis paradigm is called somewhat <strong>in</strong>to question, however, by the factthat Acc-<strong>in</strong>g does not take sentence adverbials when it is <strong>in</strong> argument position:(193) a. *I was worried about John probably be<strong>in</strong>g a spyb. *I was grateful for John fortunately know<strong>in</strong>g the answerFactivity probably contributes to the ill-formedness of (193a): note that Iwas worried about John be<strong>in</strong>g a spy <strong>in</strong>volves the presupposition that Johnis aspy this would be <strong>in</strong>compatible with an adverb like probably. Thisdoes not account for the ungrammaticality of (193b), however. Whateverthe condition that prevents sentence adverbials from appear<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> Acc-<strong>in</strong>ggerunds <strong>in</strong> argument position may well also exclude them from Poss-<strong>in</strong>ggerunds, which must always appear <strong>in</strong> argument position. I leave this asan unresolved question.


116 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUND3 <strong>Sentential</strong> <strong>Aspect</strong>s of Poss-<strong>in</strong>gIn the previous section, I summarized the evidence that has been collectedover the years that makes it quite clear that Poss-<strong>in</strong>g gerunds are nounphrases, whereas Acc-<strong>in</strong>g gerunds are sentential.3.1 VP <strong>in</strong> Poss-<strong>in</strong>gIf Poss-<strong>in</strong>g gerunds are noun phrases, though, there is clearly a VP embedded<strong>in</strong> them. <strong>The</strong> \head" of the gerund|i.e., the V+<strong>in</strong>g|(a) Case-assigns<strong>its</strong> complement, (b) takes adverbs rather than adjectives, (c) takes auxiliaries,(d) takes double object complements, etc., etc. (For a completecatalog of the constructions that are found <strong>in</strong> the complement ofverbs, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>gPoss-<strong>in</strong>g gerunds, but not <strong>in</strong> the complement of nouns, see sectionII-5.) In all these ways, it behaves like a true verb, and not a noun:(194) a. John's discover<strong>in</strong>g a thesis-writ<strong>in</strong>g algorithm*John's discovery a thesis-writ<strong>in</strong>g algorithmb. Horace's carefully describ<strong>in</strong>g the bank vault to Max*Horace's carefully description of the bank vault to Maxc. Gu<strong>in</strong>eve's hav<strong>in</strong>g presented a golden cup to Bertrand*Gu<strong>in</strong>eve's have(<strong>in</strong>g) presentation of a golden cup to Bertrandd. Ilana's giv<strong>in</strong>g Marc a kiss <strong>in</strong> public*Ilana's gift of Marc of a kiss <strong>in</strong> public<strong>The</strong>se facts <strong>in</strong>dicate that there is a VP embedded with<strong>in</strong> Poss-<strong>in</strong>g, that thestructure is [ NP NP's ... VP].3.2 PRO <strong>in</strong> the Gerund<strong>The</strong>re is a bit of complicat<strong>in</strong>g evidence. <strong>The</strong>re are ways <strong>in</strong> which the genitivenoun phrase does not behave like atypical genitive. In particular, thesubject of the gerund, like the subject of the sentence, but unlike the subjectof the noun phrase, is obligatory|as we discussed <strong>in</strong> II-4.5.b. As discussedat length by Wasow & Roeper, Poss-<strong>in</strong>g diers from Ing-of <strong>in</strong> that Poss<strong>in</strong>g|ormore accurately, \PRO-<strong>in</strong>g", s<strong>in</strong>ce there is no sign of genitive case|shows obligatory control (Wasow & Roeper (1972) exx. 3-5.):(195) a. i. I detest loud s<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>gii. I detest s<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g loudlyb. i. John enjoyed a read<strong>in</strong>g of <strong>The</strong> Bald Sopranoii. John enjoyed read<strong>in</strong>g <strong>The</strong> Bald Soprano


3. SENTENTIAL ASPECTS OF POSS-ING 117c. i. <strong>The</strong> kill<strong>in</strong>g of his dog upset Johnii. Kill<strong>in</strong>g his dog upset JohnIn the (ii) sentences, the agent of the gerund is necessarily understoodto be either the subject of the sentence or the object, <strong>in</strong> the psych-verbconstructions (i.e., \I" <strong>in</strong> (a), \John" <strong>in</strong> (b) and (c)). This is the usualpattern for control of <strong>in</strong>nitives, as well: I would prefer to s<strong>in</strong>g loudly, Tokill his dog would upset John. In the (i) examples, on the other hand, thenom<strong>in</strong>al need not be understood as controlled. This seems to <strong>in</strong>dicate thatthere is necessarily a PRO subject <strong>in</strong> the (ii) examples, but necessarily none<strong>in</strong> the (i) examples.<strong>The</strong>re are two sets of apparent counterexamples to the claim that PROisobligatory <strong>in</strong> the PRO-<strong>in</strong>g examples. First are examples like Shoot<strong>in</strong>g deeris fun/illegal. Wasow & Roeper argue that these <strong>in</strong>volve a deleted one|<strong>in</strong>current terms, PRO arb . Support<strong>in</strong>g their analysis, we may observe thatexamples of this sort are only possible <strong>in</strong> generic contexts, and <strong>in</strong> generalcorrespond to PRO arb contexts for <strong>in</strong>nitives. It has been suggested thatsuch cases actually <strong>in</strong>volve control by an implicit benefactive argument:Shoot<strong>in</strong>g deer is fun for X/illegal for X. If so, these examples generalizewith the next set of apparently problematic examples.<strong>The</strong> second class of apparent counterexamples <strong>in</strong>volve PRO-<strong>in</strong>g constructionsas subjects of passives, such asSeced<strong>in</strong>g from the Union wasconsidered. Wasow & Roeper argue that the controller is the implicit agentof the passive this seems quite reasonable, especially <strong>in</strong> lightofrecentwork<strong>in</strong>to the syntactic activeness of such implicit arguments.Baker (1985c) notes that, not only are PRO-<strong>in</strong>g gerunds obligatorilycontrolled, but they require pleonastic subjects, when no external -role isassigned:(196) I am disappo<strong>in</strong>ted by ...a. <strong>its</strong>/*the/*ra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g all dayb. <strong>its</strong>/*the be<strong>in</strong>g certa<strong>in</strong> that she'll quitc. *<strong>its</strong>/the certa<strong>in</strong>ty that she'll quit(Baker 1985c ex. 21.)Baker also cites examples like *I enjoyed PROrendition of the aria asevidence that PRO is not only not required <strong>in</strong> non-gerundive noun phrases,it is not allowed. Such examples must be considered with caution, though.<strong>The</strong>y crucially assume that subjects of noun phrases occupy the same positionas determ<strong>in</strong>ers. This is called somewhat <strong>in</strong>to question by examplessuch asthere's no PRO x<strong>in</strong>g this boat now, where a determ<strong>in</strong>er and PRO


118 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUNDco-occur. (As Quirk et al. (1985) po<strong>in</strong>t out, the presentational context isone place <strong>in</strong> which gerunds productively appear with determ<strong>in</strong>ers. Jespersoncites similar examples.) Be that as it may, it is clear that controlledPRO is excluded from non-gerundive noun phrases.Baker expla<strong>in</strong>s the obligator<strong>in</strong>ess of PRO and pleonastics <strong>in</strong> gerundsby appeal<strong>in</strong>g to Rothste<strong>in</strong>'s Rule of Predicate-L<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g. Rothste<strong>in</strong> (1983)argues that verb phrases are predicates, and are thus subject to a syntacticrequirement that they have a subject. N-bar, on the other hand, is not apredicate, and thus does not require (and apparently also does not license)PRO or pleonastics.In section II-4.5.b., I adopted a modied version of this hypothesis,namely, thatVP, but not NP, is a predicate that requires a subject. VPis found <strong>in</strong> both Acc-<strong>in</strong>g and Poss-<strong>in</strong>g hence the requirement thatPROoran overt subject appear when VP has an external -role, and a pleonastic,when it does not. Contrary to Rothste<strong>in</strong>, I assumed that NP can, but neednot, license a PRO. <strong>The</strong> fact that PRO is not obligatory correlates withthe fact that control is not obligatory with Ing-of.<strong>The</strong>re is a residual problem which this does not solve, however. Considerthe examples (197), where the context is a discussion about one's children:(197) a. It's the constant bicker<strong>in</strong>g at each other that bothers me mostb. *It's bicker<strong>in</strong>g at each other that bothers me mostIn (197a), we have an Ing-of <strong>in</strong> a control environment, and the anaphoreach other seemstorequireaPROantecedent. Control is not required,however, as <strong>in</strong>dicated by thewell-formedness of the example. If control hadbeen required, the antecedent me would have madePRO s<strong>in</strong>gular, thus anunsuitable antecedent foreach other. Justsuch a situation is illustrated <strong>in</strong>(197b), with a PRO-<strong>in</strong>g construction.If this argument is correct, it <strong>in</strong>dicates that it is not simply the presenceof PRO that determ<strong>in</strong>es whether a phrase must be controlled, but alsothe type of phrase <strong>in</strong>volved. <strong>The</strong> generalization we made earlier was thatcontrol is mediated by the phrase conta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g PRO, and that sentences, butnot noun phrases, require control. This hypothesis is <strong>in</strong>compatible withanalyz<strong>in</strong>g Poss-<strong>in</strong>g as a noun phrase. If PRO-<strong>in</strong>g can at least optionallybe an empty-subject version of Poss-<strong>in</strong>g, and control of Poss-<strong>in</strong>g is notobligatory, <strong>in</strong>asmuch asPoss-<strong>in</strong>g is a noun phrase, then we would expectexamples like (197b) to be grammatical. Poss-<strong>in</strong>g should pattern with Ingofwith respect to obligator<strong>in</strong>ess of control.One option is to assume that Poss-<strong>in</strong>g never exists with a PRO subject.We might suppose, for <strong>in</strong>stance, that the only determ<strong>in</strong>er that selects VP,and thus heads a Poss-<strong>in</strong>g type construction, is [+AGR], and excludes PRO


3. SENTENTIAL ASPECTS OF POSS-ING 119by be<strong>in</strong>g a governor. This does not seem to conform to the facts, however.<strong>The</strong>re are a few [-AGR] determ<strong>in</strong>ers that appear <strong>in</strong> Poss-<strong>in</strong>g constructions|we have seen there's [no x<strong>in</strong>g this boat] now, for example. Also, there arepositions <strong>in</strong> which only Poss-<strong>in</strong>g, and not Acc-<strong>in</strong>g, can appear:(198) a. the Adm<strong>in</strong>istration defended North's siphon<strong>in</strong>g funds to theKhmer Rouge*the Adm<strong>in</strong>istration defended North siphon<strong>in</strong>g funds to the KhmerRougeb. the Adm<strong>in</strong>istration deplored North's gett<strong>in</strong>g caught atit*the Adm<strong>in</strong>istration deplored North gett<strong>in</strong>g caught atitIn these contexts, it is still possible to nd PRO-<strong>in</strong>g examples, <strong>in</strong>dicat<strong>in</strong>gthat these PRO-<strong>in</strong>g examples must correspond to Poss-<strong>in</strong>g structures asexpected, we dohave obligatory control: 50(199) a. the Adm<strong>in</strong>istration defended siphon<strong>in</strong>g funds to the KhmerRougeb. the Adm<strong>in</strong>istration deplored gett<strong>in</strong>g caught atitI do not have a solution to this residual problem. I believe themostlikely l<strong>in</strong>e is to argue that the Poss-<strong>in</strong>g construction <strong>in</strong>deed always has anovert subject, and all examples of PRO-<strong>in</strong>g have the structure of Acc-<strong>in</strong>g.Under this hypothesis, an explanation rema<strong>in</strong>s to be found for the examplesof (199) and examples like there's [no x<strong>in</strong>g this boat] now (cf. e.g. footnote50). A second possibility is that the obligator<strong>in</strong>ess of control is <strong>in</strong> some waytied to the obligator<strong>in</strong>ess of PRO: when PRO appears as the subject of NP,it is only optionally controlled, because it is an \optional PRO".3.3 \N-bar" DeletionA second way <strong>in</strong>which the possessor <strong>in</strong> gerunds diers from that <strong>in</strong> nongerundivenoun phrases is <strong>its</strong> ability to support a deleted complement. \Nbar"deletion is possible with concrete noun phrases, but not with gerunds:(200) Iwas surprised by John's eagerness, and by Mary's, too.*I was surprised by John's pitch<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>, and by Mary's, too.50 A fact that calls this paradigm somewhat <strong>in</strong>to question is that there are verbs underwhich neither Poss-<strong>in</strong>g nor Acc-<strong>in</strong>g appears, yet PRO-<strong>in</strong>g does appear. <strong>The</strong>se <strong>in</strong>cludeavoid, cherish, deny, and possibly enjoy and detest. Thisweakens the claim that, becauseAcc-<strong>in</strong>g structures are ill-formed <strong>in</strong> these contexts, by process of elim<strong>in</strong>ation the examplesof (199) must necessarily <strong>in</strong>volve Poss-<strong>in</strong>g structures.


120 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUNDThis property is not unique to gerunds, though, but is also possessed byderived nom<strong>in</strong>als:(201) *I was surprised by John's discovery of an answer, and byMary's, too.It appears to depend only on the fact that these nom<strong>in</strong>als denote situations,rather than objects. (<strong>The</strong> cut is between situations and objects, not betweenconcrete and abstract, as <strong>in</strong>dicated by the well-formedness of similarsentences where an abstract object is <strong>in</strong>volved: I was surprised byJohn'sidea, and by Mary's, too.)I return to this issue <strong>in</strong> section 6.1.f.


4. ANALYSES I: FINDING THE SEAMS 1214 Analyses I: F<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g the SeamsSeveral proposals have been made <strong>in</strong> the literature as to the proper analysisof Poss-<strong>in</strong>g. In this section I would like to discuss each of them, as well assome that have not previously been proposed.4.1 SchachterSchachter (1976) argues for this structure:(202)NP/ \DET NOM| |NP VP| |John's fix<strong>in</strong>g the carChomsky (1981) adopts much the same structure, though he om<strong>its</strong> the\DET" and \NOM" nodes, and generates VP and the possessive NPdirectlyunder the topmost NP node.Schachter assumes that auxiliaries are generated <strong>in</strong>side VP, but modalsare generated external to VP, expla<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g the absence of modals <strong>in</strong> gerunds: 51(203) *Frederick's must(<strong>in</strong>g) depart*Alan's can(n<strong>in</strong>g) burn toy soldiersSchachter's and Chomsky's analyses are problematic under current viewsconcern<strong>in</strong>g X-bar structure. <strong>The</strong>re are two problems with Schachter's structure,assum<strong>in</strong>g VP is the head of NOM, and ultimately of NP: how can amaximal category head another category, and how can a head dier <strong>in</strong> syntacticcategory from the phrase it heads: i.e., how can a verbal categoryhead a nom<strong>in</strong>al category? On the other hand, if VP is not the head of NP,then NP is unheaded, and we still have a violation of X-theory.Also, to account for the appearance of genitive Case <strong>in</strong> the gerund, it isassumed that genitive Case is assigned to the structural position [NP,NP].All other Cases are assigned by lexical Case assigners, though. It would be51 Actually, Schachter notes that, given his assumptions about phrase-structure, thereis no pr<strong>in</strong>cipled way of exclud<strong>in</strong>g the rule NOM ! Aux VP (<strong>in</strong> place of NOM ! VP).Thus the lack of modals is correctly captured <strong>in</strong> his rules, but is not actually expla<strong>in</strong>ed.


122 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUNDmuch preferable to assimilate genitive Case to the others <strong>in</strong> this respect. 52In Knowledge of Language, Chomsky takes the noun to be the genitiveCase-assigner, but this leaves the presence of genitive Case <strong>in</strong> the gerund amystery, s<strong>in</strong>ce there is no noun present. 53On the positive side, Chomsky gets some mileage from the fact thatno noun head is present <strong>in</strong> the gerund. Specically, he argues that PROis possible <strong>in</strong> the gerund, but not <strong>in</strong> non-gerundive noun phrases, because<strong>in</strong> non-gerundive noun phrases, the noun governs the specier position,preclud<strong>in</strong>g PRO but <strong>in</strong> gerunds, there is no lexical head, and PRO ispermitted.4.2 HornHorn (1975) proposes:(204)NP=N''/ \Spec,N' N'/ \<strong>in</strong>g VPUnder Horn's analysis (as well as under Schachter's), the availabilityofPRO is predicted: though -<strong>in</strong>g is a noun, it is also an ax, and presumablydoes not qualify as a \lexical category" hence it does not preclude PRO <strong>in</strong><strong>its</strong> government-doma<strong>in</strong>.<strong>The</strong> two problems with Schachter's analysis|<strong>in</strong>compatability with currentX-bar theory, assignment of genitive Case|receive natural solutionsunder Horn's analysis. X-bar theory is observed: the head of NP is anN VP is a complement of that N, not the head of the gerund. S<strong>in</strong>ce -<strong>in</strong>gappears at PF merged with the verb, we can account for the <strong>in</strong>tuition thatthe verb is the head. <strong>The</strong> presence of genitive Case can be ascribed to thenoun -<strong>in</strong>g, under assumptions like Chomsky's, viz., that nouns are assignersof genitive Case.52 Certa<strong>in</strong>ly, there appear to be <strong>in</strong>stances of Case-assignment without Case-assigners<strong>in</strong> adjectival absolutives, for example: our fearless leader sick, we all pitched <strong>in</strong> tohelp. Here a \default" Case appears, which is, <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>, objective or \common" Case.Genitive Case assignment has little <strong>in</strong> common with such constructions.53 Chomsky claims that VP is the genitive Case-assigner <strong>in</strong> gerunds. <strong>The</strong> mystery isthen why VP is the sole phrasal Case-assigner (all other Cases are assigned by X 0 's) andwhy VP assigns genitive Caseonly when it appears <strong>in</strong>side the noun phrase.


4. ANALYSES I: FINDING THE SEAMS 1234.3 <strong>The</strong> D-VP Analysis4.3.a-<strong>in</strong>g as Functional HeadA reason for be<strong>in</strong>g uneasy with Horn's analysis is that -<strong>in</strong>g is not a typicalnoun. <strong>Noun</strong>s are not normally axes. <strong>Noun</strong>s do not normally select VP's.<strong>Noun</strong>s do not normally have obligatory complements.A related problem is why determ<strong>in</strong>ers cannot generally ll the specierposition of -<strong>in</strong>g, especially s<strong>in</strong>ce a possessor is permitted. Also, if -<strong>in</strong>g isa noun, why are adjectives, PP modiers, relative clauses, etc. excluded?<strong>The</strong> lack of adjectives, etc. might suggest treat<strong>in</strong>g -<strong>in</strong>g as a pronoun, butif it is a pronoun, why does it permit a possessor?<strong>The</strong> fact that -<strong>in</strong>g shows up as a verbal ax, and displaces modals,makes it appear a priori to be an In. In fact, if we accept Reuland'sarguments, -<strong>in</strong>g is precisely a garden-variety In <strong>in</strong> the Acc-<strong>in</strong>g construction.Unfortunately, ifitwere an In <strong>in</strong> the Poss-<strong>in</strong>g construction, Poss-<strong>in</strong>gshould behave likeasentence, not a noun phrase.Given the framework developed <strong>in</strong> Chapter II, we can take -<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> Poss<strong>in</strong>gto be \Inectional" <strong>in</strong> the sense of be<strong>in</strong>g a functional element onewhich is like In, moreover, <strong>in</strong> select<strong>in</strong>g VP. We can assume that it diersfrom -<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> Acc-<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> that it possesses the feature [+N] rather than [-N].This idea is attractive, <strong>in</strong> that it postulates m<strong>in</strong>imal variance between the-<strong>in</strong>g of Acc-<strong>in</strong>g, Poss-<strong>in</strong>g, and Ing-of, yet still accounts for the substantialdierences <strong>in</strong> their behavior. <strong>The</strong> -<strong>in</strong>g of the Ing-of construction, we mayassume, is like thePoss-<strong>in</strong>g -<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> be<strong>in</strong>g [+N]. It diers from Poss-<strong>in</strong>g -<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong> that it selects V 0 , not VP: it is not an ax with an <strong>in</strong>dependent syntacticdoma<strong>in</strong>.By chang<strong>in</strong>g [-N] to [+N] <strong>in</strong> the lexical entry of Acc-<strong>in</strong>g -<strong>in</strong>g, we <strong>in</strong> eectcreate a Determ<strong>in</strong>er ([+F,+N]) not a <strong>Noun</strong> ([-F,+N]), under the featuredecomposition of syntactic categories which we proposed earlier. Thus ifwe take seriously the ways <strong>in</strong> which Horn's -<strong>in</strong>g behaves like a functionalelement, rather than a lexical element, we are led to recast his structure asa DP structure:(205)DP/ \Possr D'/ \D VP|-<strong>in</strong>g


124 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUND<strong>The</strong> unavailability of determ<strong>in</strong>ers and adjectives follows from the fact thatthey are not licensed by D, but by N. <strong>The</strong> fact that -<strong>in</strong>g is an ax, andobligatorily selects a non-argument complement, are typical properties offunctional elements.This analysis preserves solutions provided by Horn's analysis for theproblems <strong>in</strong> Schachter's analysis. First, the VP is not the head of thenoun phrase: the Determ<strong>in</strong>er is. <strong>The</strong> <strong>in</strong>tuition that V is the \head" of thephrase is preserved, if we assume that D functionally-selects VP. Namely,if D functionally-selects VP, then it <strong>in</strong>her<strong>its</strong> <strong>its</strong> descriptive content fromVP, and becomes an s-projection of V. But s<strong>in</strong>ce D c-projects the nounphrase (i.e., DP), X-theory is not violated. What is <strong>in</strong>volved is merely thesubstitution of one maximal category, VP, for another, NP.Second, genitive Case <strong>in</strong> the gerund is accounted for, given our earlierhypothesis that AGR <strong>in</strong> the Determ<strong>in</strong>er assigns genitive Case|we needonly assume the AGR which assigns genitive Case can co-occur with -<strong>in</strong>g.<strong>The</strong> availabilityofPRO is also predicted, given that -<strong>in</strong>g is a functionalelement, thusnotagovernor for PRO.4.3.bTurkish Aga<strong>in</strong><strong>The</strong> D-VP analysis is also rendered particularly attractive because it exactlyparallels Kornlt's (1984) analysis of gerunds <strong>in</strong> Turkish. Recall that thereis an overt AGR which assigns genitive Case <strong>in</strong> Turkish noun phrases, andthus strong evidence for the existence of a D node. <strong>The</strong> gerund construction,as <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>, is a mixed construction: externally, and as concerns thesubject, it behaves like a noun phrase, while <strong>in</strong>ternally, itbehaves like aVP:(206) a. Halil'-<strong>in</strong> her dakika is-im-e karIs-ma-sIHalil-GEN every m<strong>in</strong>ute bus<strong>in</strong>ess-1s-DAT <strong>in</strong>terfere-ING-3s\Halil's constantly <strong>in</strong>terfer<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> my bus<strong>in</strong>ess"b. Halil'-<strong>in</strong> gel-di~g-<strong>in</strong>-i ~ bil-iyor-umHalil-GEN come-ING-3s-ACC know-PROG-1s\I know that Halil is com<strong>in</strong>g"c. Kedi-ye yemek- ver-me-di~g-<strong>in</strong>iz do~gru mu?cat-DAT food-ACC give-NEG-ING-2p true Q\Is it true that you did not give food to the cat?"<strong>The</strong> verb takes all <strong>its</strong> usual complements and modiers: except for themorphology on the verb, the phrase <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g the verb and <strong>its</strong> complementsis <strong>in</strong>dist<strong>in</strong>guishable from any other verb phrase. On the other hand, the


4. ANALYSES I: FINDING THE SEAMS 125AGR is nom<strong>in</strong>al AGR, and assigns genitive Case rather than nom<strong>in</strong>ativeCase also, the phrase as a whole is assigned Case like any non-gerundivenoun phrase. 54 Clearly, the structure of the Turkish gerund is preciselywhat the D-VP analysis proposes for <strong>English</strong> Poss-<strong>in</strong>g:(207)DP/ \Halil'<strong>in</strong> D'__/ \D VP/ \ |D AGR V| |-<strong>in</strong>- gel-(What is less clear is precisely where -dIg attaches, and where the casemarker belongs. For this reason, I have omitted them from the diagram. Iwill return to this question below.)4.3.c's and Determ<strong>in</strong>ersAn (apparent) problem for the D-VP analysis is that there are a few cases oflexical determ<strong>in</strong>ers co-occurr<strong>in</strong>g with -<strong>in</strong>g. Jespersen (1909-49:vol.V,p.96)cites the follow<strong>in</strong>g examples (the rst of them is also cited by Jackendo(1977) and Schachter (1976) similar examples are noted <strong>in</strong> Ross (1973)):(208) a. <strong>The</strong>re is [no enjoy<strong>in</strong>g life] without theeb. [This tell<strong>in</strong>g tales out of school] has got to stopc. <strong>The</strong> judgement ofheaven for [my wicked leav<strong>in</strong>g my father'shouse]d. Between rheumatism and [constant handl<strong>in</strong>g the rod and gun](Jesperson ascribes (c) to Defoe (d) to K<strong>in</strong>gsley.)<strong>The</strong> appearance of determ<strong>in</strong>ers <strong>in</strong> Poss-<strong>in</strong>g class gerunds was apparentlymuch freer until early <strong>in</strong> this century. Poutsma (1923) cites numerousexamples from Dickens:(209) a. [<strong>The</strong> hav<strong>in</strong>g to ght with that boisterous w<strong>in</strong>d] took o hisattention. (Chimes, I)54 <strong>The</strong> absence of a case-marker <strong>in</strong> (206c) is not <strong>in</strong>dicative of failure of case-assignment.<strong>The</strong> accusative case-marker is often omitted, even with non-gerundive noun phrases.


126 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUNDb. [the be<strong>in</strong>g cheerful and fresh for the rst moment,] and then[the be<strong>in</strong>g weighed down by the stale and dismal oppression ofremembrance.] (David Coppereld, Ch.IV, 30a)c. I am not disposed to ma<strong>in</strong>ta<strong>in</strong> that [the be<strong>in</strong>g born <strong>in</strong> a workhouse]is <strong>in</strong> <strong>its</strong>elf the most fortunate and enviable circumstancethat can possibly befall a human be<strong>in</strong>g. (Oliver Twist, Ch.I, 19)Poutsma cites further such examples from Dickens, Field<strong>in</strong>g, Samuel Butler,Hume, Thackery, Jane Austen, Scott, Shakespeare, and several others.(208c) and (208d) are the most disturb<strong>in</strong>g, because they <strong>in</strong>clude adjectives.This suggests a structure <strong>in</strong> which the VP is <strong>in</strong>side of N-bar. Itis dicult to know howtoevaluate them, however, as they are denitelyungrammatical <strong>in</strong> the modern idiom. (208a), on the other hand, illustratesa construction that is quite productive to the present. Consider:(210) <strong>The</strong>re's no x<strong>in</strong>g it now<strong>The</strong>re's no turn<strong>in</strong>g back the clockGerunds with this are also fairly acceptable (as noted also by Jackendo):(211) ?This tell<strong>in</strong>g tales out of school has to stop?This mix<strong>in</strong>g bus<strong>in</strong>ess and pleasure is go<strong>in</strong>g to catch up with youNeither of these examples are overwhelm<strong>in</strong>g. <strong>The</strong> construction of (210)is clearly a xed phrase. No cannot take gerunds <strong>in</strong> other contexts: *I wouldrecommend no stung ballot boxes this time, *John thought no teas<strong>in</strong>g hisdog could bother the general. And the examples of (211) are really not verygood, and to the extent that they are acceptable, the construction has theavor of examples like This \Why, Mommy?" every time I tell you to dosometh<strong>in</strong>g has got to stop, where what follows this is disquotational|onecan even imag<strong>in</strong>e hav<strong>in</strong>g a silent gesture after this.4.4 <strong>The</strong> D-IP AnalysisAvariation on the D-VP analysis is what wemight call the \D-IP" analysis:


4. ANALYSES I: FINDING THE SEAMS 127(212)DP/ |DP D'__| \D IP/ |DP I'| \I VPJohn 's PRO -<strong>in</strong>g hit the ballUnder this analysis, 's and -<strong>in</strong>g occupy two dist<strong>in</strong>ct functional-element positions.<strong>The</strong> complement of D is basically In, but it is \nom<strong>in</strong>alized" by the-<strong>in</strong>g, to some extent. Its syntactic category is In, but it has certa<strong>in</strong> lexicalfeatures which make it suciently nom<strong>in</strong>al <strong>in</strong> character that D can selectit. In eect, this analysis <strong>in</strong>volves the embedd<strong>in</strong>g of a PRO-<strong>in</strong>g structureunder a noun-phrase specier.I argued for the D-IP analysis <strong>in</strong> Abney (1986) it was orig<strong>in</strong>ally suggestedto me by Richard Larson. Larson's suggestion was that [PRO V <strong>in</strong>g...] denotes a property which is possessed by the subject (see below, section4.5.e.). In his view, 's is a rough semantic equivalent of the verb have.<strong>The</strong> D-IP analysis is required if we are to take 's to be a determ<strong>in</strong>er(an analysis which I considered earlier, <strong>in</strong> section II-3.5.b., but did notadopt). In particular, suppos<strong>in</strong>g that 's occupies the determ<strong>in</strong>er positionraises a conict with the supposition that -<strong>in</strong>g is <strong>in</strong> the determ<strong>in</strong>er position.Possibly both share the determ<strong>in</strong>er position: we might suppose that 's isa spell-out of AGR, and that <strong>in</strong> the same way AGR <strong>in</strong> the sentence canco-occur with e.g. Tense, 's can co-occur with an <strong>in</strong>ectional element, viz.,-<strong>in</strong>g.But this raises the question why 's cannot co-occur with e.g. the, ifitcan co-occur with -<strong>in</strong>g: whyis*John's [ D the] book bad, where John's [ D-<strong>in</strong>g] leave early is not? This is not a problem under the D-IP analysis.<strong>The</strong>re are considerations that make the D-IP analysis seem plausible,at least <strong>in</strong>itially.4.4.aDeterm<strong>in</strong>ersFirst, if one found unsatisfy<strong>in</strong>g the way I expla<strong>in</strong>ed away the apparent casesof determ<strong>in</strong>ers <strong>in</strong> gerunds, or if one wishes to assign a structure to the archaicsentences cited by Jespersen, the D-IP analysis makes room for a full


128 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUNDrange of determ<strong>in</strong>ers. <strong>The</strong> fact that determ<strong>in</strong>ers do not generally appearwith gerunds might be expla<strong>in</strong>ed along l<strong>in</strong>es suggested by Schachter| towit, that gerunds are like proper nouns <strong>in</strong> tak<strong>in</strong>g only a restricted set ofdeterm<strong>in</strong>ers|or by suppos<strong>in</strong>g that only certa<strong>in</strong> determ<strong>in</strong>ers are \satised"with the nom<strong>in</strong>al character of the gerundive IP, and most determ<strong>in</strong>ers requiretrue NP's.4.4.b<strong>The</strong> Position of -<strong>in</strong>gA conceptual problem with the D-VP analysis, as well as Horn's analysis,is the position of -<strong>in</strong>g. Under the D-VP analysis, we must assume an -<strong>in</strong>glower<strong>in</strong>g rule, to get the right word order but lower<strong>in</strong>g rules raise certa<strong>in</strong>problems with regard to the proper government of the trace of movement.If we assume the verb raises to -<strong>in</strong>g, on the other hand, we are unable toderive gerunds like:(213) John's hurriedly [ D put-t<strong>in</strong>g] [ VP t out the re]Hurriedly appears outside of VP, <strong>in</strong> a position where it cannot be licensed. 55Under the D-IP analysis, on the other hand, we may assume V raisesto -<strong>in</strong>g, and still have a position available for hurriedly|the same positionit occupies <strong>in</strong> the nite clause (214b):(214) a. John's [ IP PRO hurriedly [ I put-t<strong>in</strong>g] [ VP t out the re]]b. [ IP John hurriedly [ I put-AGR] [ VP t out the re]]Counterbalanc<strong>in</strong>g this argument to some extent is the fact that the D-IP analysis makes room for sentence adverbials, as well however,aswenoted above, these adverbials are generally considered ungrammatical <strong>in</strong>gerunds. On the other hand, I expressed some question as to whether theywere actually excluded from gerunds if we decide that they are not, thereis no problem for the D-IP analysis.4.4.cSpanish El + InnitiveIn Spanish, we nd the denite article tak<strong>in</strong>g both <strong>in</strong>nitives, which arethe equivalent of gerunds <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>, and que clauses (examples from Plann(1981)):55 Though the possibility thathurriedly orig<strong>in</strong>ates <strong>in</strong> the VP and is moved to <strong>its</strong> observedposition cannot be dismissed.


4. ANALYSES I: FINDING THE SEAMS 129(215) [el [lamentar la perdida de las elecciones]] es <strong>in</strong>utilthe lament the loss of the elections is futile\lament<strong>in</strong>g the loss <strong>in</strong> the elections is futile"[el [que tu vengas]] no es importantethe that you come not is important\it is not important that you are com<strong>in</strong>g"<strong>The</strong> fact that el takes a clause <strong>in</strong> Spanish lends credence to the claim thatdeterm<strong>in</strong>ers can take clausal complements.4.4.dScope of Not<strong>The</strong>re is also evidence from scope phenomena which seems to support theD-IP analysis over the D-VP analysis and Horn's analysis. In the sentence,it is preferred for not <strong>in</strong> In to take wide scope over the subject of thesentence. Consider the sentence:(216) [ IP Everyone [ I didn't] come]Both read<strong>in</strong>gs, :8x(x came) and 8x:(x came), are possible, but the formeris preferred. We may assume that both scope relations are possible becausethe two operators mutually c-command, and that the negation operator haswide scope preferentially because it is \more prom<strong>in</strong>ent", be<strong>in</strong>g the headof the constituent.Now consider the Poss-<strong>in</strong>g gerund:(217) Everyone's not com<strong>in</strong>gHere, the narrow scope read<strong>in</strong>g for not is actually excluded: the only <strong>in</strong>terpretationis \the fact that 8x:(x came)". This is expected under the D-IPanalysis. Assum<strong>in</strong>g the scope of not to be IP, everyone is outside <strong>its</strong> scope:(218) [ DP everyone 's [ IP PRO [ I not -<strong>in</strong>g] come]]Under the D-VP analysis, on the other hand, we would expect the scopalrelations to be the same as <strong>in</strong> the sentence| assum<strong>in</strong>g that not appears <strong>in</strong>D <strong>in</strong> the gerund <strong>in</strong> the same way it appears <strong>in</strong> I <strong>in</strong> the sentence:(219) [ DP everyone [ D 's not -<strong>in</strong>g] come]<strong>The</strong> crucial contrast, though, is between Acc-<strong>in</strong>g and Poss-<strong>in</strong>g gerunds.Under the D-IP analysis, we would expect that they would dier: Acc-<strong>in</strong>gshould behave exactly like thesentence. Unfortunately, the judgements arevery subtle, but it does seem that giv<strong>in</strong>g not wide scope is better <strong>in</strong> theAcc-<strong>in</strong>g construction:


130 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUND(220) a. ?I was irked at [everyone not com<strong>in</strong>g], but at least George andMaria were there.b. ?*I was irked at [everyone's not com<strong>in</strong>g], but at least Georgeand Maria were there.Oddly enough, (220a) seems slightly better with stress on everyone. Also,<strong>in</strong> the context of (220b), the wide-scope read<strong>in</strong>g for not is not so bad as itis out of context. And here as well, stress on everyone causes considerableimprovement. In sum, it seems that robust judgements are not to be hadconcern<strong>in</strong>g scope-assignment tonot, but to the extent that they go as Ihave <strong>in</strong>dicated, they provide support for the D-IP analysis.4.4.e's as -AssignerIn Abney (1986), it was assumed that 's uniformly assigned a -role to <strong>its</strong>subject, account<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> this way for the lack of rais<strong>in</strong>g and pleonastics <strong>in</strong> thenoun phrase. <strong>The</strong> gerund diers from non-gerundive noun phrases <strong>in</strong> thatrais<strong>in</strong>g is possible:(221) a. [John's be<strong>in</strong>g likely t to w<strong>in</strong>] will only spur Bill onb. [John's be<strong>in</strong>g certa<strong>in</strong> t to w<strong>in</strong>] will make Billgiveupc. [John's appear<strong>in</strong>g/seem<strong>in</strong>g t to want us to leave him alone]mied Muy<strong>The</strong> D-IP analysis allows one to preserve the assumption that 's is a -assigner, <strong>in</strong> that it makes room for a PRO antecedent of the NP-trace,without assum<strong>in</strong>g that John moved <strong>in</strong>to a -position. <strong>The</strong> problem whicharises now is gett<strong>in</strong>g the proper <strong>in</strong>terpretation with regard to the role ofJohn <strong>in</strong> the situation denoted by the IP. In Abney (1986), I presentedan account which also solved a problem which arises generally <strong>in</strong> analyses<strong>in</strong> which A-movement <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase is rejected (Grimshaw (1986)presents such an analysis): this problem is the construal of possessors whichappear to receive a-role other than Possessor from the noun, namely, <strong>in</strong>derived nom<strong>in</strong>als like Caesar's destruction of the city, the city's destruction.<strong>The</strong> account Igave <strong>in</strong> Abney (1986), <strong>in</strong> a nutshell, is as follows. 56 First,consider a phrase like John's honesty, which denotes an attribute. Presumably,this does <strong>in</strong>volve simple possession, and not A-movement. 57 Yet thereis entailment that, if John's honesty succeeds <strong>in</strong> denot<strong>in</strong>g someth<strong>in</strong>g (i.e.,56 <strong>The</strong> central idea, of possession of a property, is due to Richard Larson.57 Though an analysis <strong>in</strong> which all deadjectival nouns were \unaccusative" would notbe <strong>in</strong>conceivable.


4. ANALYSES I: FINDING THE SEAMS 131if we are not deal<strong>in</strong>g with a sentence like John's honesty is non-existent, <strong>in</strong>which John's honesty fails to denote), then honest(John). If John possessesthe attribute of honesty (where we assume the <strong>in</strong>terpretation of honesty tobe the property x[honest(x)]) then John is honest. This is what I calledthe Possessional Entailment.(222) Possessional Entailment:Where is an entity, and is an attribute, Poss(,) ! ()Now we can get the proper construal of e.g. John <strong>in</strong> John's leav<strong>in</strong>g byclaim<strong>in</strong>g that the <strong>in</strong>terpretation of [ IP PRO leav<strong>in</strong>g] is x[9e[e is a leav<strong>in</strong>g& Agent(x e)]], PRO <strong>in</strong> eect provid<strong>in</strong>g the variable of abstraction for theproperty. Predicat<strong>in</strong>g this attribute of John is to say that John left.A similar account can be given for derived nom<strong>in</strong>als by claim<strong>in</strong>g thatthey also denote properties: namely, that when the noun destruction isformed from the verb destroy, the <strong>in</strong>terpretation of destruction is a propertyformed by abstract<strong>in</strong>g over one of the two -positions of destroy,i.e., either x[9e [destruction(e) & Agent(x e)]] or x[9e [destruction(e)&Patient(x e)]].Though there may be someth<strong>in</strong>g to this account, as it stands, it seems tobe a complex x for an unnecessarily complex analysis. It would perhaps benecessary if other evidence supported the claim that the subject position ofPoss-<strong>in</strong>g is a -position. Wewould expect, for <strong>in</strong>stance, that pleonastics andidiom chunks be disallowed <strong>in</strong> this position (as they are <strong>in</strong> non-gerundivenoun phrases). Idiom chunks are <strong>in</strong>deed not very good:(223) a. Advantage was taken of John's situation(I was irked at) advantage be<strong>in</strong>g taken of John's situation??(I was irked at) advantage's be<strong>in</strong>g taken of John's situationb. <strong>The</strong> bull was taken by the horns(I approve of) the bull be<strong>in</strong>g taken by the horns <strong>in</strong> this matter??(I approve of) the bull's be<strong>in</strong>g taken by the horns <strong>in</strong> this matterc. Much was made of Calv<strong>in</strong>'s foresight(<strong>The</strong> slim marg<strong>in</strong> by which global thermonuclear warfare wasaverted justied) much be<strong>in</strong>g made of Calv<strong>in</strong>'s foresight*(<strong>The</strong> slim marg<strong>in</strong> by which global thermonuclear warfare wasaverted justied) much's be<strong>in</strong>g made of Calv<strong>in</strong>'s foresightBut pleonastics are rather good. Judgments are somewhat mixed, but thereis a clear contrast between pleonastics with gerunds and pleonastics withnon-gerundive noun phrases (Baker (1985c) gives a gerund with <strong>its</strong> be<strong>in</strong>glikely as fully grammatical):


132 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUND(224) a. ?(I'm happy about) <strong>its</strong> be<strong>in</strong>g likely that John will nish soon??(I was surprised at) <strong>its</strong> seem<strong>in</strong>g that John might not w<strong>in</strong>b. *<strong>its</strong> likelihood that John would w<strong>in</strong>*<strong>its</strong> appearance that John would w<strong>in</strong>cf.: the likelihood that John would w<strong>in</strong><strong>The</strong> ill-formedness of the examples with idiom chunks we can ascribe to the<strong>in</strong>dependent condition on possessors that they be animate. Non-animate,even non-concrete possessors are acceptable, with some degradation. Thisdegradation is most severe, we may assume, with noun phrases like idiomchunks that do not denote anyth<strong>in</strong>g at all. In fact, the examples of (223)do seem to vary <strong>in</strong> acceptability accord<strong>in</strong>g to the extent to which they canbe <strong>in</strong>terpreted as metaphoric, rather than out-and-out non-referential. Wecan account for the marg<strong>in</strong>ality of the pleonastic examples of (224) <strong>in</strong> likefashion. This is my<strong>in</strong>tuition, for <strong>in</strong>stance, about the dierence between theexample with be likelyand that with seem: it is forced to be understood asreferential. With be likely, it can be fairly easily construed as denot<strong>in</strong>g theproposition John will w<strong>in</strong>, and propositions can be likely. With seem, onthe other hand, even if we construe it as the proposition that John mightnotw<strong>in</strong>,we cannot speak of propositions seem<strong>in</strong>g, hence the additionalill-formedness of the example: we are forced to recognize it as truly nonreferential.58In sum, none of the arguments for the D-IP analysis are particularlystrong, and the relative well-formedness of the examples with pleonasticsis rather persuasive evidence aga<strong>in</strong>st it. Thus I reject it, and with it, theproposition that 's is a -assign<strong>in</strong>g head of DP.(i)58 Burzio's examples (i) are relevant here.it was likely, without PRO be<strong>in</strong>g obvious, that S*it seemed, without be<strong>in</strong>g obvious, that SA possible <strong>in</strong>terpretation of the contrast <strong>in</strong> (i) is that it as subject of be likely occupiesa -position, hence can control a PRO. It as subject of seem, on the other hand, cannotcontrol, <strong>in</strong>dicat<strong>in</strong>g that it is a true pleonastic (thanks to N. Chomsky for rem<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g meof these examples).


5. ANALYSES II: THE MORPHOLOGICAL ANGLE 1335 Analyses II: <strong>The</strong> Morphological Angle<strong>The</strong>re is another approach to the problem of gerund structure, exempli-ed by the analyses of Jackendo, Lebeaux, and Baker. In this view, thequestion of gerund structure is a question of the <strong>in</strong>teraction of morphologyand syntax: it is a question of the behavior of phonologically dependentmorphemes that, at some level, behave like <strong>in</strong>dependent morphemes, syntactically.5.1 Jackendo5.1.a<strong>The</strong> Deverbal Rule SchemaJackendo (1977) recognizes that gerunds are problematic for a restrictiveXschema. <strong>The</strong> assumption that gerunds <strong>in</strong>volve a noun phrase headed byaverb violates his Uniform Three-Level Hypothesis (that every category X 0projects to X 3 ,andevery X 3 is headed by anX 0 ). He subsumes gerunds,along with ve other structures, under a s<strong>in</strong>gle exceptional rule schema, theDeverbaliz<strong>in</strong>g Rule Schema:(225) X i ! af - V iHis structure for Poss-<strong>in</strong>g gerunds results from <strong>in</strong>stantiat<strong>in</strong>g this schemawith X=N, i=2, and af=-<strong>in</strong>g:(226)_N'''/ |Poss N''/ \-<strong>in</strong>g V''|V'/ \V Obj-<strong>in</strong>g subsequently lowers to V, yield<strong>in</strong>g the correct surface form.In this way, he accounts for the presence of a genitive (which is regularlyaN 000 specier), the presence of VP (V 00 for him: V 000 is S), and the absenceof a nom<strong>in</strong>ative subject, modals, and sentence adverbials, which are alldaughters of V 000 .


134 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUND5.1.b<strong>The</strong> History of the <strong>English</strong> GerundAs Jackendo po<strong>in</strong>ts out, this view perm<strong>its</strong> a straightforward account ofthe history of the construction. Apparently the oldest form of the gerundis a simple deverbal noun, such asbuild<strong>in</strong>g, writ<strong>in</strong>g. Jackendo speculatesthat the historical development of the gerund <strong>in</strong>volved a rais<strong>in</strong>g of theattachment site of the nom<strong>in</strong>aliz<strong>in</strong>g ax, from (227) (where X=N and i=0)to (226) (X=N, i=2):(227)N'''|N''|N'|N/ \V -<strong>in</strong>gEmonds (1973) and Poutsma (1923) give chronologies for the developmentof the gerund that support Jackendo's claims. Emonds 1973 is astudy of gerunds <strong>in</strong> Chaucer, with the <strong>in</strong>tent to demonstrate that the Poss<strong>in</strong>gconstruction is not used by Chaucer, but only the Ing-of construction.He gives a list of criteria for dist<strong>in</strong>guish<strong>in</strong>g the Poss-<strong>in</strong>g and Ing-of constructions,and applies these criteria to all the examples of V+<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> Chaucer's\<strong>The</strong> Parson's Tale". Virtually all examples are either clearly Ing-of, ordo not show clear <strong>in</strong>dications of their status. <strong>The</strong>re are only a handful ofexamples which appeartobePoss-<strong>in</strong>g or PRO-<strong>in</strong>g these Emonds attemptsto expla<strong>in</strong> away, with more or less success. Even if he does not show Poss<strong>in</strong>gto be non-existent <strong>in</strong> Chaucer, he does demonstrate that it is very rare,much more so than <strong>in</strong> current usage.Poutsma gives a much more general chronology of the development ofthe gerund. This is his account, <strong>in</strong> brief: <strong>The</strong> gerund end<strong>in</strong>g was orig<strong>in</strong>ally-ung that of the participle, -end(e) (-<strong>in</strong>d(e) <strong>in</strong> Southern dialects). Aswith modern German nom<strong>in</strong>als <strong>in</strong> -ung, orDutch nom<strong>in</strong>als <strong>in</strong> -<strong>in</strong>g, the Old<strong>English</strong> gerund <strong>in</strong> -ung had only nom<strong>in</strong>al characteristics, and none of themixed quality of present-day Poss-<strong>in</strong>g. <strong>The</strong> gerund and participle end<strong>in</strong>gscollapsed <strong>in</strong> the development of Middle <strong>English</strong>. Poutsma reconstructsthecourseofchange as loss of the dental stop <strong>in</strong> the participle end<strong>in</strong>g,followed by freevariation between a dental and velar po<strong>in</strong>t of articulationfor the nasal. By the fourteenth century, both end<strong>in</strong>gs were -<strong>in</strong>g, except<strong>in</strong> some Northern dialects, where dist<strong>in</strong>ct end<strong>in</strong>gs had been preserved at


5. ANALYSES II: THE MORPHOLOGICAL ANGLE 135least to the time of Poutsma's writ<strong>in</strong>g: -an(d) for the participle, -<strong>in</strong>(g)for the gerund. <strong>The</strong> collapse of participle and gerund paved the way forthe \mix<strong>in</strong>g" of the verbal properties of the participle and the nom<strong>in</strong>alproperties of the gerund. <strong>The</strong> beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>gs of the \mixed" gerund occurred<strong>in</strong> the mid fteenth century. First, gerunds began appear<strong>in</strong>g with particles(previously, accord<strong>in</strong>g to Poutsma, particles were found with gerunds onlyas prexes, not as separate words):(228) a. the mak<strong>in</strong>g up of the seide evidencez (Paston Let. No. 43, ca.1444)b. smytynge of of hese feteris (\smit<strong>in</strong>g o of his fetters", (PastonLet. No. 144, ca. 1464)Examples of gerunds tak<strong>in</strong>g a direct object beg<strong>in</strong> to appear <strong>in</strong> the latefteenth century. F<strong>in</strong>ally, it is only much later (the end of the sixteenthcentury) that gerunds beg<strong>in</strong> to appear with aspect and voice dist<strong>in</strong>ctions.Until that time, active gerunds are used <strong>in</strong> a passive sense (this usage is frequenteven <strong>in</strong> Shakespeare, and survives to the present day <strong>in</strong> constructionslike to be worth see<strong>in</strong>g (synonymous with to be worth be<strong>in</strong>g seen)).This chronology accords well with Jackendo's claim that the developmentof the gerund <strong>in</strong>volved attach<strong>in</strong>g -<strong>in</strong>g at an ever higher po<strong>in</strong>t <strong>in</strong>theexpansion of NP. <strong>The</strong> only glitch appears to be account<strong>in</strong>g for the stageat which auxiliaries are not generated, but particles and bare-noun-phrasedirect objects are. This would seem to <strong>in</strong>dicate application of the Deverbaliz<strong>in</strong>gRule Schema at the X' level|Jackendo generates auxiliaries underV". However, adjectives and speciers like many, three, are generated outsideN', predict<strong>in</strong>g that at the stage <strong>in</strong> which auxiliaries were not generated,adjectives were permitted, which is highly unlikely|though I do not havedata one way or the other.5.1.cIng-ofA third possible <strong>in</strong>stantiation of the Deverbaliz<strong>in</strong>g Rule Schema with X=Nand af=-<strong>in</strong>g, whichJackendo does not discuss, is the follow<strong>in</strong>g, where i=1:


136 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUND(229)N'''|N''|N'/ \-<strong>in</strong>g V'|VIn Jackendo's system, such a construction would have the follow<strong>in</strong>g properties:it would have the distribution of a noun phrase, it would have bothN 000 and N 00 speciers|i.e., possessors, determ<strong>in</strong>ers, quantiers, and adjectivesit would have both non-restrictive and restrictive relative clauses,but objects would not be marked with of, butwould be bare noun phrases.It would lack modals, auxiliaries, all adverbials, but would have verbalsubcategorizations, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g particles, Case-marked noun phrases, doubleobjects, etc.<strong>The</strong>re is a construction which has some, but not all, of these properties:namely, the \Ing-of" construction:(230) John's x<strong>in</strong>g of the carthe look<strong>in</strong>g up of the <strong>in</strong>formationThis construction appears to <strong>in</strong>volve a simple deverbal noun, like derivednom<strong>in</strong>als. In particular, it lacks the primary characteristic of a verbalconstruction, viz., Case-mark<strong>in</strong>g of the direct object. However, it diers <strong>in</strong>important ways from other derived nom<strong>in</strong>als, which po<strong>in</strong>t to a more verbalcharacter. Firstly, it perm<strong>its</strong> particles, as we have seen|though it does notpermit particle movement: *the look<strong>in</strong>g of the <strong>in</strong>formation up. It is alsolike averb and unlike a derived nom<strong>in</strong>al <strong>in</strong> that it does not permit passivewithout passive morphology:(231) a. <strong>The</strong>ir carefully rebuild<strong>in</strong>g the city<strong>The</strong>ir careful rebuild<strong>in</strong>g of the city<strong>The</strong>ir careful reconstruction of the city*<strong>The</strong> city's carefully rebuild<strong>in</strong>g t*<strong>The</strong> city's careful rebuild<strong>in</strong>g t<strong>The</strong> city's careful reconstructionThirdly, it patterns with Poss-<strong>in</strong>g rather than derived nom<strong>in</strong>als <strong>in</strong> not permitt<strong>in</strong>gtemporal subjects (examples from Emonds (1973):


5. ANALYSES II: THE MORPHOLOGICAL ANGLE 137(232) a. <strong>The</strong>ir renew<strong>in</strong>g our contract this year<strong>The</strong>ir renew<strong>in</strong>g of our contract this year<strong>The</strong>ir renewal of our contractb. *This year's renew<strong>in</strong>g our contract*This year's renew<strong>in</strong>g of our contractThis year's renewal of our contractOn the other hand, determ<strong>in</strong>ers and relative clauses 59 are permitted,and modals and auxiliaries are excluded:(233) a. [the count<strong>in</strong>g of the votes that took the longest] was <strong>in</strong> the 4thdistrictb. *the hav<strong>in</strong>g xed of the carIn short, the properties of the Ing-of construction are not precisely whatJackendo would predict, assum<strong>in</strong>g the structure (229), but they are closeenough to merit further <strong>in</strong>vestigation.5.2 Pesetsky/LebeauxA structure similar to that of (229) has been proposed by Lebeaux (1986).Lebeaux, follow<strong>in</strong>g Pesetsky (1985), argues that there is LF-movement ofaxes, and that the verbal properties of the Ing-of construction can beaccounted for by assum<strong>in</strong>g LF-rais<strong>in</strong>g of -<strong>in</strong>g to N-bar.Pesetsky argues for us<strong>in</strong>g LF-rais<strong>in</strong>g of axes to account for a numberof \paradoxes" <strong>in</strong> morphology. Most of his examples <strong>in</strong>volve a stem withboth a prex and a sux, where the phonology <strong>in</strong>dicates that the prexis attached after the sux, whereas the syntax or semantics <strong>in</strong>dicates thatthe sux is attached after the prex. For <strong>in</strong>stance, consider the form unhappi-er.-er attaches only to monosyllabic stems, or disyllabic stems withespecially light second syllables: *direct-er, *complex-er. 60 This <strong>in</strong>dicates59 Restrictive relative clauses are often not as good as one might like. This seems tohave to do with the fact that these items denote situations it is a property they sharewith derived nom<strong>in</strong>als:(i)(ii)?the s<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g of a ship that bothered me the most was when the Lusitanic wentdown?the destruction of a city that bothered me the most was when they bombedDresden60 Though I am not entirely conv<strong>in</strong>ced that the comb<strong>in</strong>ation of light rst syllable,stressed second syllable, and semi-vowel third syllable allows -er even where the rstsyllable is not a prex. I have been unable to nd exist<strong>in</strong>g words of this form, but the


138 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUNDthat, for the phonology, the analysis must be [un [happy er]]. However, themean<strong>in</strong>g is not \not more happy", but \more not happy", <strong>in</strong>dicat<strong>in</strong>g that,for the semantics, the analysis must be [[un happy] er]. Pesetsky solves thispuzzle by satisfy<strong>in</strong>g the phonology at s-structure, and the semantics at LF:he raises -er at LF, so that it has narrow scope at s-structure, and broadscope at LF:(234)AA/ \ / \un A --> A er/ \ / \happy er un A/ \happy tLebeaux (1986) suggests us<strong>in</strong>g this device to account fortheverbalproperties of the Ing-of construction. He suggests that the V+<strong>in</strong>g noun <strong>in</strong>e.g. the s<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g of the song has many verbal properties because, at LF, itis a verb:(235)NPNP| |N'N'/ \ / \N of the song --> V' <strong>in</strong>g/ \ / \V <strong>in</strong>g V of the song| / \s<strong>in</strong>g V t|s<strong>in</strong>g(Note that syntactic-feature percolation reapplies at LF, with the resultthat some of the category labels change between s-structure and LF. Inparticular, morphological traces do not possess syntactic category features,so the former complement ([ V s<strong>in</strong>g]) becomes the new head, as far as percolationof syntactic-category features is concerned.)neologism corrodey (< corrode + -y, \disgust<strong>in</strong>g") sounds quite happy with-er: This iscorrodier than anyth<strong>in</strong>g my mom's ever made me do before. This does not bear on theother paradoxes which Pesetsky has collected, however.


5. ANALYSES II: THE MORPHOLOGICAL ANGLE 139<strong>The</strong> similarity to the analysis I suggested to ll out the Jackendovianparadigm is strik<strong>in</strong>g. It is attractive to attempt to account for (part of)Ross' range of noun-phrase-like vs. sentence-like constructions by postulat<strong>in</strong>gdierences <strong>in</strong> the scope of the nom<strong>in</strong>aliz<strong>in</strong>g ax -<strong>in</strong>g. In lexicalizedforms like build<strong>in</strong>g, it takes scope over N 0 <strong>in</strong> Ing-of, it takes scope overN-bar <strong>in</strong> Poss-<strong>in</strong>g, it takes scope over NP and <strong>in</strong> Acc-<strong>in</strong>g, it takes scopebeyond the projections of N, head<strong>in</strong>g <strong>its</strong> own, <strong>in</strong>dependent, syntactic projection.5.3 BakerBaker (1985c) argues that the dierence between Poss-<strong>in</strong>g and Ing-of gerundsis a matter of scope of -<strong>in</strong>g. He takes the Poss-<strong>in</strong>g construction to be a caseof \syntactic axation", on a par with noun-<strong>in</strong>corporation, <strong>in</strong> contrastto Ing-of, which <strong>in</strong>volves lexical axation of -<strong>in</strong>g. More precisely, he assumesthat Poss-<strong>in</strong>g gerunds have d-structures exemplied by (236), ands-structures like (237):(236)(237)IP__/ | \NP Infl VP| | \-<strong>in</strong>g V NP| \s<strong>in</strong>g the ariaNP_/ \NP NP| \N NP/ | \V -<strong>in</strong>g the aria|s<strong>in</strong>g-<strong>in</strong>g has lowered to ax <strong>its</strong>elf to s<strong>in</strong>g it is the head of the new complexlexical item [[s<strong>in</strong>g] <strong>in</strong>g]. Follow<strong>in</strong>g Pesetsky (1985), Baker assumes thatprojection conventions \reapply" at s-structure, with the eect that thenodes formerly labelled \V" and \VP" are relabelled \N" and \NP". <strong>The</strong>


140 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUNDformer In disappears without leav<strong>in</strong>g a trace, and -<strong>in</strong>g becomes (rema<strong>in</strong>s?)head of the former IP, which is accord<strong>in</strong>gly relabelled \NP". Baker ascribesthe sentence-like properties of gerunds to the fact that they are sentencesat d-structure, and their noun-phrase-like properties to the fact that theyare noun phrases at s-structure and beyond.<strong>The</strong>re are a number of details which Baker does not iron out. First,Baker considers -<strong>in</strong>g to be the head of IP at d-structure this would <strong>in</strong>dicatethat -<strong>in</strong>g is of syntactic category I, however, not N. <strong>The</strong> alternative isto assume an empty In at d-structure which disappears at s-structure. Secondly,there is a paradox concern<strong>in</strong>g the tim<strong>in</strong>g of ax-movement and Casemark<strong>in</strong>g.For the complements of s<strong>in</strong>g, Baker requires Case-mark<strong>in</strong>g toapply before ax-movement, <strong>in</strong>asmuch as after ax-movement, the Caseassigners<strong>in</strong>g has become the non-Case-assign<strong>in</strong>g noun s<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g. On the otherhand, the gerund as a whole behaves like a noun phrase for the purposes ofCase-assignment: it is not Case-resistant it <strong>in</strong> fact requires Case. This requiresCase-assignment to apply sometime after ax-movement, when thegerund has become a noun phrase. In this case, an empty In will not help,however. IP cannot become NP until after ax-movement has occured,but by then it is too late to Case-mark the complement(s) of s<strong>in</strong>g. Thusto make Baker's account coherent, we must assume that the gerund is anoun phrase at all levels. Case-assignment precedes ax-movement, andax-movement precedes PF, and probably s-structure.


6. CONCLUSION: SYNTACTIC AFFIXATION 1416 Conclusion: Syntactic Axation6.1 A F<strong>in</strong>al Analysis6.1.a<strong>The</strong> \Scope" of -Ing<strong>The</strong> analysis of gerunds I would like to defend is very close to that ofJackendo, except that I will generalize my analysis to Ing-of, and I adopta DP structure for the noun phrase. <strong>The</strong> essence of the analysis is this:the dierences <strong>in</strong> the structures of the various types of gerund <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>reduce to dierences <strong>in</strong> the \scope" of the nom<strong>in</strong>alizer -<strong>in</strong>g. -Ing has thesame basic properties <strong>in</strong> all three gerund structures|Acc-<strong>in</strong>g, Poss-<strong>in</strong>g,Ing-of|namely,ittakes a verbal projection, and converts it <strong>in</strong>to a nom<strong>in</strong>alcategory. <strong>The</strong> three types of gerund dier only with regard to the po<strong>in</strong>ton the s-projection path of V that the conversion to a nom<strong>in</strong>al categoryoccurs: at V 0 ,atVP,oratIP.Most of the properties of Acc-<strong>in</strong>g, Poss-<strong>in</strong>g, and Ing-of fall out correctlyif we <strong>in</strong>terpret \take scope over" as mean<strong>in</strong>g \be sister of", creat<strong>in</strong>g thefollow<strong>in</strong>g structures (at s-structure):(238)a. Acc-<strong>in</strong>g:DP/ \-<strong>in</strong>g IP/ \John I'/ \I VP/ \V DP| |s<strong>in</strong>g the Marseillaise``John s<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g the Marseillaise''


142 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUNDb. Poss-<strong>in</strong>g:DP/ \John's D'/ \D NP/ \-<strong>in</strong>g VP/ \V DP| |s<strong>in</strong>g the Marseillaise``John's s<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g the Marseillaise''c. Ing-of:DP/ \John's D'/ \D NP/ \N PP (KP?)/ \-<strong>in</strong>g V of the Marseillaise|s<strong>in</strong>g``John's s<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g of the Marseillaise''Ihave taken -<strong>in</strong>g to adjo<strong>in</strong> to a (s-)projection of V, project<strong>in</strong>g <strong>its</strong> ownnom<strong>in</strong>al features to the category result<strong>in</strong>g from the adjunction, after themanner of morphological axation (despite the fact that the adjunctionis <strong>in</strong> the syntax). If we assume that -<strong>in</strong>g can only adjo<strong>in</strong> to a maximalprojection when it adjo<strong>in</strong>s <strong>in</strong> the syntax, then, under the DP-analysis, wecorrectly predict three possible adjunction sites for -<strong>in</strong>g, viz., those of (238):adjunction to V 0 (i.e., adjunction <strong>in</strong> the morphology), adjunction to VP,adjunction to IP. 61 For sake of preciseness, let us assume that -<strong>in</strong>g has61 A fourth possibilitywould be adjunction to CP. Prelim<strong>in</strong>arily,wemayfollow Chomsky(1986a) <strong>in</strong> assum<strong>in</strong>g that adjunction to CP is excluded by (as yet obscure) universalpr<strong>in</strong>ciples. <strong>The</strong> structure [ CP C[ DP -<strong>in</strong>g [ IP ... ]]] is excluded because the selectionproperties of C are violated.


6. CONCLUSION: SYNTACTIC AFFIXATION 143the feature [+N]. Assum<strong>in</strong>g V, VP have the features [-F,-N], adjo<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g -<strong>in</strong>goverrides the [-N] value, creat<strong>in</strong>g categories of type [-F,+N], i.e., N, NP.Assum<strong>in</strong>g IP has the features [+F,-N], adjo<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g -<strong>in</strong>g produces a [+F,+N]category: i.e., DP. 62I should make very clear that I assume that -<strong>in</strong>g \axes"toaverbalprojection, \convert<strong>in</strong>g" it directly <strong>in</strong>to a nom<strong>in</strong>al projection, without project<strong>in</strong>gany structure of <strong>its</strong> own. For example, <strong>in</strong> the Acc-<strong>in</strong>g construction,I assume that -<strong>in</strong>g axes to IP and converts it <strong>in</strong>to DP. -<strong>in</strong>g is not a Dit simply substitutes <strong>its</strong> [+N] feature <strong>in</strong>to the IP matrix, produc<strong>in</strong>g a DP.<strong>The</strong>re is no D 0 and no D-bar. If -<strong>in</strong>g were a D project<strong>in</strong>g DP <strong>in</strong> accordancewith X-bar theory, wewould expect it to take a subject, or to licenseother dependents, such as locative PP's but it does not. I spell out themechanisms of this \axation to XP" <strong>in</strong> section 6.1.e.6.1.bAcc-<strong>in</strong>g<strong>The</strong> only noun-phrase property of Acc-<strong>in</strong>g, if <strong>its</strong> structure is as given <strong>in</strong>(238a), is <strong>its</strong> external distribution. All the properties of the subject, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>gthe Case it receives, and all the properties of the verb phrase conta<strong>in</strong>edwith<strong>in</strong> Acc-<strong>in</strong>g, are the same as are found <strong>in</strong> the sentence. This diers fromReuland's account|which wehave assumed to now|<strong>in</strong> that it predicts anoun-phrase-like distribution for Acc-<strong>in</strong>g. Reuland ascribed no noun-phraseproperties to Acc-<strong>in</strong>g at all. <strong>The</strong> predictions made by assign<strong>in</strong>g Acc-<strong>in</strong>g thestructure <strong>in</strong> (238a) seem to accord better with the facts. As we noted <strong>in</strong>discuss<strong>in</strong>g the external properties of Poss-<strong>in</strong>g (section 2.1 above), the distributionof Acc-<strong>in</strong>g is more like that of Poss-<strong>in</strong>g than we would expect ifAcc-<strong>in</strong>g were a CP pla<strong>in</strong> and simple. Acc-<strong>in</strong>g is somewhat marg<strong>in</strong>al <strong>in</strong> mostnoun-phrase positions from which sentences are excluded, but not as badas we would expect under Reuland's analysis (cf. the examples of section2.1.a.).In addition to <strong>its</strong> distribution, we identied (<strong>in</strong> 2.1) two other ways <strong>in</strong>which Poss-<strong>in</strong>g had the external behavior of a noun phrase, but Acc-<strong>in</strong>gdid not. If we are now to assume, contrary to our earlier assumptions, thatAcc-<strong>in</strong>g is a noun phrase at <strong>its</strong> outermost level, these ways that Acc-<strong>in</strong>gdiers <strong>in</strong> behavior from other noun phrases must be accounted for. <strong>The</strong>two properties <strong>in</strong> question are (1) the fact that conjo<strong>in</strong>ed Acc-<strong>in</strong>g phrases <strong>in</strong>subject position do not trigger plural agreement, and (2) that an anaphor<strong>in</strong> the subject of Acc-<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> subject position cannot be long-distance bound:62 I am assum<strong>in</strong>g, as I have s<strong>in</strong>ce I.1.2, that N and V are dist<strong>in</strong>guished by their valuefor the s<strong>in</strong>gle feature [N]. Under more standard assumptions about their feature composition,we would have to assume that -<strong>in</strong>g has the features [+N,-V].


144 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUND(239) a. John com<strong>in</strong>g so often and Mary leav<strong>in</strong>g so often bothers/*botherme(vs.: John and Mary *bothers/bother me)b. *they thought that [each other giv<strong>in</strong>g up the ship] was forgivable(vs.: p they thought that [each other's desertion] was forgivableBoth of these dierences can be straightforwardly expla<strong>in</strong>ed given oneassumption, which I wish to make for <strong>in</strong>dependent reasons: namely, thatthe determ<strong>in</strong>er is the site of person, number, and gender features (so-called\Phi" features). 63 In Poss-<strong>in</strong>g, but not <strong>in</strong> Acc-<strong>in</strong>g, there is a D, hence Phifeatures.For this reason conjo<strong>in</strong>ed Poss-<strong>in</strong>g's trigger plural agreement, likeother plural noun phrases. S<strong>in</strong>ce Acc-<strong>in</strong>g does not have Phi-features, onthe other hand, AGR cannot co<strong>in</strong>dex with it hence AGR shows \default"agreement when it has an Acc-<strong>in</strong>g subject, <strong>in</strong> the same way that<strong>its</strong>howsdefault agreement when it has a sentential subject. Likewise, s<strong>in</strong>ce AGRdoes not co<strong>in</strong>dex with Acc-<strong>in</strong>g, AGR counts as an accessible SUBJECTfor anaphors with<strong>in</strong> Acc-<strong>in</strong>g, account<strong>in</strong>g for the dierence <strong>in</strong> long-distanceb<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g properties between Acc-<strong>in</strong>g and noun phrases that do bear Phifeatures,<strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g Poss-<strong>in</strong>g. 64Thus, all the external evidence dist<strong>in</strong>guish<strong>in</strong>g Poss-<strong>in</strong>g as noun phrasebut Acc-<strong>in</strong>g as sentence can readily be accounted for under hypothesis (238),under which both are noun phrases externally. <strong>The</strong>y cont<strong>in</strong>ue to dier withregard to the expected behavior of their subjects (cf. 2.2.a.): the subjectof Poss-<strong>in</strong>g behaves like the subject of a noun phrase, but the subject ofAcc-<strong>in</strong>g behaves like the subject of a sentence.<strong>The</strong> assignment of accusative Case to the subject of Acc-<strong>in</strong>g bears abit of discussion. I will part ways with Reuland, and assume not thataccusative Case is assigned from outside, and transferred by -<strong>in</strong>g to thesubject, but that there is an AGR present. I assume there is a nom<strong>in</strong>alAGR <strong>in</strong> Poss-<strong>in</strong>g, assign<strong>in</strong>g genitive Case, and a verbal AGR <strong>in</strong> Acc-<strong>in</strong>g,assign<strong>in</strong>g common Case or nom<strong>in</strong>ative Case (nom<strong>in</strong>ative Case is usuallyonly assigned <strong>in</strong> absolutive constructions, such asMary was wast<strong>in</strong>g hertime on John, [he be<strong>in</strong>g a conrmed bachelor]). I take the (possibility ofthe) presence of AGR <strong>in</strong> In to be the default case, not the exception. <strong>The</strong>63 I discuss my reasons for wish<strong>in</strong>g to make this assumption <strong>in</strong> Chapter IV. In brief,determ<strong>in</strong>ers and pronouns (which Itake to be of category Determ<strong>in</strong>er) are the elementswhich mark these features to the highest degree, uniformly across languages. This suggeststhat the Determ<strong>in</strong>er is the grammatical locus of these features.64 In the b<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g theory of Chomsky (1986b), the dierence is one of the availabilityofa BT-compatible <strong>in</strong>dex<strong>in</strong>g. AGR does not count as a \potential b<strong>in</strong>der" for anaphors <strong>in</strong>Poss-<strong>in</strong>g because of the \i-with<strong>in</strong>-i" condition AGR does count asapotential b<strong>in</strong>der foranaphors <strong>in</strong> Acc-<strong>in</strong>g, because it does not co<strong>in</strong>dex with Acc-<strong>in</strong>g. See Chomsky (1986b:173-174).


6. CONCLUSION: SYNTACTIC AFFIXATION 145one place where it is not possible to have AGR <strong>in</strong> In is <strong>in</strong> the <strong>in</strong>nitive.In the <strong>in</strong>nitive, we may assume that it is the presence of to <strong>in</strong> In whichprecludes AGR.6.1.cPoss-<strong>in</strong>g<strong>The</strong> analysis of Poss-<strong>in</strong>g presented <strong>in</strong> (238b) varies only slightly from theD-VP analysis exam<strong>in</strong>ed earlier, and most explanations of properties ofPoss-<strong>in</strong>g given under the D-VP analysis carry over <strong>in</strong>to the current analysis.Poss-<strong>in</strong>g has the distribution of a noun phrase because it is <strong>in</strong> fact a nounphrase (DP). With regard to agreement and long-distance b<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g whenPoss-<strong>in</strong>g lls subject position, we have just noted that Poss-<strong>in</strong>g diers fromAcc-<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> possess<strong>in</strong>g a D position, hence, Phi-features. 65 <strong>The</strong> subjectreceives genitive Case from D AGR . I assume that there is a non-overt AGR<strong>in</strong> D assign<strong>in</strong>g genitive Case, and that 's is a postpositional case-marker(K). If sentence adverbials are licensed by the presence of an In, then wepredict they will be found <strong>in</strong> Acc-<strong>in</strong>g but not Poss-<strong>in</strong>g this seems to becorrect, though, as we noted earlier (x2.2.e.), there is some unclarity <strong>in</strong>howto <strong>in</strong>terpret the facts.We also observed that quantier subjects of Acc-<strong>in</strong>g strongly prefer narrowscope <strong>in</strong>terpretation, whereas quantier subjects of Poss-<strong>in</strong>g stronglyprefer wide scope <strong>in</strong>terpretation. If quantiers need to adjo<strong>in</strong> to IP to takescope, the <strong>in</strong>abilityofquantiers to take narrow scope <strong>in</strong> Poss-<strong>in</strong>g, and theirability to do so <strong>in</strong> Acc-<strong>in</strong>g, is immediately accounted for, under the currentanalysis: there is an IP <strong>in</strong> Acc-<strong>in</strong>g, but not <strong>in</strong> Poss-<strong>in</strong>g. 66 What we have notyet expla<strong>in</strong>ed is why quantier subjects <strong>in</strong> Acc-<strong>in</strong>g resist wide scope <strong>in</strong>terpretation,whereas correspond<strong>in</strong>g subjects <strong>in</strong> e.g. <strong>in</strong>nitival complementsare amenable to either scope:(240) a. John disapproves of everyone tak<strong>in</strong>g a day o (* wide)b. John wanted every girl <strong>in</strong> the chorus l<strong>in</strong>e to be his wife ( p wide)Iwould like to suggest that there is a stronger relation between (bridge)verbs and their sentential complements than simply -assignment, and thatthis relation is possible only between verbs and other verbal projections (i.e.,IP, CP): hence, the fact that Acc-<strong>in</strong>g is a DP at the highest level expla<strong>in</strong>s<strong>its</strong> <strong>in</strong>ability to \clause-merge" with the matrix verb. We can expla<strong>in</strong> the65 Recall that Acc-<strong>in</strong>g is a DP, but there is no D 0 |-<strong>in</strong>g converts IP directly <strong>in</strong>to DP.See section 6.1.e. for an account of the mechanisms <strong>in</strong>volved.66 Fiengo & Higg<strong>in</strong>botham (1980) argue that quantiers can also adjo<strong>in</strong> to N-bar (NP,under the DP-analysis). This does not aect the question at hand, as long as quantierscannot adjo<strong>in</strong> to DP (NP, under the standard analysis).


146 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUND<strong>in</strong>abilityofquantiers <strong>in</strong> Acc-<strong>in</strong>g to take matrix scope by claim<strong>in</strong>g that thelack of \clause-merg<strong>in</strong>g" creates a barrier to quantier climb<strong>in</strong>g.F<strong>in</strong>ally, we noted two otherways <strong>in</strong> which Acc-<strong>in</strong>g and Poss-<strong>in</strong>g aredierentiated: Poss-<strong>in</strong>g shows \specicity" eects, and perm<strong>its</strong> pied pip<strong>in</strong>gAcc-<strong>in</strong>g does not. <strong>The</strong>re is no standard account ofthemechanism whichperm<strong>its</strong> pied pip<strong>in</strong>g. I would like to suggest that it <strong>in</strong>volves the percolationof a wh-feature along non-verbal projections. <strong>The</strong> wh-feature of a wh-PPcan percolate to a licens<strong>in</strong>g (i.e., -mark<strong>in</strong>g) noun, at least <strong>in</strong> some cases,but never to a licens<strong>in</strong>g verb (at least <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>):(241) a. my mother, [a picture of whom] you saw tb. *my mother, [exam<strong>in</strong>e whom] I thought the doctor never wouldtAssum<strong>in</strong>g the subject is licensed by the functional head conta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g AGR|In <strong>in</strong> Acc-<strong>in</strong>g, D <strong>in</strong> Poss-<strong>in</strong>g|the ability or <strong>in</strong>ability ofthewh-feature topercolate to the phrase as a whole is correctly predicted under the currentanalysis. In is a verbal category, thus percolation of the subjectwh-feature, and pied pip<strong>in</strong>g of the Acc-<strong>in</strong>g phrase, are prohibited D is anom<strong>in</strong>al category, hence pied pip<strong>in</strong>g of DP is permitted:(242) *the man [who irt<strong>in</strong>g with your wife] you took such exception tothe man [whose irt<strong>in</strong>g with your wife] you took such exception toConcern<strong>in</strong>g \specicity" eects: If we localize the source of this eect<strong>in</strong> the presence of a D node, it follows straightforwardly from the currentanalysis that Poss-<strong>in</strong>g, but not Acc-<strong>in</strong>g, will show specicity eects. <strong>The</strong>current analysis makes it more dicult to give a subjacency-based accountfor the dist<strong>in</strong>ction <strong>in</strong> question (i.e., the city which I remember him describ<strong>in</strong>gt vs. *the city which I remember his describ<strong>in</strong>g t). <strong>The</strong>re is no concensuson the proper way to treat specicity eects, but it has been frequentlyobserved that, even among non-gerundive noun phrases, the degree to whicha noun phrase node is a \barrier" to extraction corresponds to the degreeto which that noun phrase is <strong>in</strong>terpreted as referential. If this <strong>in</strong>tuitioncan be developed <strong>in</strong>to a satisfactory formal account, it will plausibly cutproperly between Poss-<strong>in</strong>g constructions|which possess Phi-features, andare to that extent referential|and Acc-<strong>in</strong>g constructions, which lackaDnode.As a clos<strong>in</strong>g note, recall that the primary problem with the D-VP analysiswas expla<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g the co-occurence of -<strong>in</strong>g and either AGR/'s or lexicaldeterm<strong>in</strong>ers, <strong>in</strong> the D position. S<strong>in</strong>ce -<strong>in</strong>g is not generated <strong>in</strong> the D positionunder the current analysis, this is no longer a problem.


6. CONCLUSION: SYNTACTIC AFFIXATION 1476.1.d<strong>The</strong> Site of -Ing<strong>The</strong> question I would like to address <strong>in</strong> this section is precisely what licensesthe conguration (243a) or (243b):(243)DPNP/ \ / \-<strong>in</strong>g IP -<strong>in</strong>g VPThis appears to be adjunction of -<strong>in</strong>g to IP or VP, except that adjunctiondoes not change category labels. Ihave described this conguration as\axation" to a maximal projection. It is similar to axation <strong>in</strong> thatthe features of the top node are determ<strong>in</strong>ed by comb<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g the features ofthe ax (-<strong>in</strong>g) and the features of the \stem" (IP,VP). In particular, DPand NP <strong>in</strong>herit the feature [+N] from the ax, and the feature [F] fromthe \stem". This is similar to the way that e.g. destruction <strong>in</strong>her<strong>its</strong> somefeatures (e.g. syntactic category) from the ax -tion, and other features(e.g. -grid) from the stem destroy.Before I can spell out precisely what I mean by \axation to a maximalprojection", I must lay some groundwork. First, I would like to presenta certa<strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>terpretation of X-bar theory which, though non-standard, isextensionally <strong>in</strong>dist<strong>in</strong>guishable from the standard <strong>in</strong>terpretation of X-bartheory. Let us beg<strong>in</strong> by consider<strong>in</strong>g the tree (244):(244)AP|A'__| \| PP| || to calligraphy|----- A0 -----------------/ \V0 A0| |prefer -ableAs it is usually conceived, there are two quite separate trees here: abovethe l<strong>in</strong>e is the syntax, to which X-bar theory applies, and below the l<strong>in</strong>e ismorphology,towhich quite dierent well-formedness pr<strong>in</strong>ciples apply. Itis


148 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUNDonly a co<strong>in</strong>cidence that one node, A 0 , belongs to both trees. On the otherhand, the dist<strong>in</strong>ction between syntax and morphology is be<strong>in</strong>g blurred moreand more <strong>in</strong> recent work, such as that of Baker, <strong>in</strong> which parts of wordsplay important, <strong>in</strong>dependent syntactic roles. If we simply \erase the l<strong>in</strong>e"between syntax and morphology,however, and assign to phrases structureslike (244), <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g both \syntactic" and \morphological" nodes, X-bartheory must be revised. Otherwise, for <strong>in</strong>stance, X-bar theory would beviolated by a subtree like (245):(245)A0/ \X0 A0| |un- happyUnder standard morphological assumptions, un- is the head of the higherA 0 ifso,however, A 0 does not agree <strong>in</strong> syntactic category with <strong>its</strong> head, butwith the complement of <strong>its</strong> head, violat<strong>in</strong>g X-bar theory. Further, the lowerA 0 is not a head, yet it is also not a maximal projection, aga<strong>in</strong> violat<strong>in</strong>gX-bar theory.<strong>The</strong>re is an obvious re<strong>in</strong>terpretation of X-bar theory that avoids theseproblems. Let us take X-bar theory to be a set of well-formedness pr<strong>in</strong>cipleswhich apply to subtrees of depth one:(246)X/ \Y Z1 Z2 ...X-bar theory states that, <strong>in</strong> such a subtree:(247) i. there is a head of X, let it be Yii.iii.iv.where n is the bar-level of X, n>0 and the bar-level of Y is nor n ; 1XandYhave the same specications for all <strong>in</strong>heritable features,<strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g syntactic categoryall non-heads Z i are maximal projectionsLet us suppose that every subtree must be licensed with respect to aset of congurational pr<strong>in</strong>ciples. To now, we have assumed that the only


6. CONCLUSION: SYNTACTIC AFFIXATION 149congurational pr<strong>in</strong>ciple-set is X-bar theory. Ifwe extend phrase markers to<strong>in</strong>clude both syntactic and morphological nodes, however, we must <strong>in</strong>cludea second set of congurational pr<strong>in</strong>ciples: the pr<strong>in</strong>ciples govern<strong>in</strong>g axationand compound<strong>in</strong>g. <strong>The</strong>y say, roughly, that <strong>in</strong> the subtree (246):(248) i. there is a head of X, let it be Yii.there is exactly one non-head, Ziii. X, Y, and Z all have X-bar level 0iv.for all features for which Y is specied, X and Y have identicalfeature-specicationsv. for all features for which Y is not specied, but Z is specied, Xand Z have identical feature-specicationsEvery subtree must be licensed either by the syntactic conditions (247)(i.e., X-bar theory), or by the pr<strong>in</strong>ciples govern<strong>in</strong>g axation and compound<strong>in</strong>g(248). If we <strong>in</strong>clude the statement (249) (immediately follow<strong>in</strong>g), whatwe have said so far is not a revision, but simply an alternative formalizationof the standard view: a theory that does not have dist<strong>in</strong>ct syntactic andmorphological structures, but does <strong>in</strong>clude (249), is extensionally <strong>in</strong>dist<strong>in</strong>guishablefrom the current theory, with dist<strong>in</strong>ct syntactic and morphologicalstructures:(249) A subtree must be licensed by X-bar theory if <strong>its</strong> head has X-barlevel n>0 otherwise, it may be licensed either by X-bar theory orby the pr<strong>in</strong>ciples govern<strong>in</strong>g morphological congurations.This is true because we can still draw a l<strong>in</strong>e between the morphology andthe syntax, as <strong>in</strong> (244). In every path from root to leaf, there will be aunique node below which all subtrees are licensed by the morphologicalconditions (248), and above which all subtrees are licensed by the syntacticconditions (247). This is guaranteed by the fact that all nodes must beX 0 's, for a subtree to be licensed by the morphological conditions, but anysubtree licensed bythesyntactic conditions will have at least one node of X-bar level greater than 0, namely, the root. Thus, <strong>in</strong> ascend<strong>in</strong>g a path fromleaf to root, it is possible to switch from us<strong>in</strong>g the morphological conditionsto license subtrees to us<strong>in</strong>g the syntactic conditions, but it is not possibleto switch back.Given this alternative formalization of conditions on structural congurationsas background, the revision I would like to propose is simply this:<strong>in</strong> the morphological conditions, I would like to revise the clause (248iii),which reads \X, Y, and Z have X-bar level 0", to (248iii'):


150 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUND(248) iii'. if Y has X-bar level 0, then Z has X-bar level 0Given (249), this revision will have no eect: if Y has X-bar level greaterthan 0, the subtree will be subject to X-bar theory, not to the morphologicalpr<strong>in</strong>ciples. If Y has X-bar level equal to 0, then X has X-bar level0by<strong>in</strong>heritance, and Z has X-bar level 0 by the revised clause (248iii'). F<strong>in</strong>ally,we may assume that X-bar levels less than 0 are universally prohibited.<strong>The</strong> revision (249) will have no eect, that is, unless there are elementswhich are unspecied for X-bar level. It is possible to have elements unspeciedfor X-bar level if we treat X-bar level as a multi-valued feature, ona par with syntactic category or person, number, and gender. For <strong>in</strong>stance,\N 0 "would be a shorthand for \[-F,+N,0Bar]". I would like tocountenancethe possibility that there are elements that are not specied for thefeature [nBar], <strong>in</strong> the same way that there are elements like un- which arenot specied for the features [F,N]. In particular, I would like to assumethat -<strong>in</strong>g is such an ax. Consider then the conguration (250): 67(250)[-F,+N,2Bar] = "NP"/ \[+N] [-F,-N,2Bar] = "VP"| |-<strong>in</strong>g make hayS<strong>in</strong>ce -<strong>in</strong>g does not have a X-bar level which is greater than 0 (<strong>in</strong>asmuchas it has no X-bar level at all), (249) perm<strong>its</strong> us to license (250) by X-bartheory (247) or by the morphological conditions (248). If we try to licenseit by X-bar theory, we fail, <strong>in</strong>asmuch as the head does not have an X-barlevel which is equal to or one less than that of the maximal projection. (In67 To be more precise, I should not represent \<strong>in</strong>g" as a separate node, but as an abbreviationfor a phonological representation. Switch<strong>in</strong>g to a postx feature representationfor clarity, the tree should actually be:(i)where[ ] =" F ;N +Bar 2#=\NP" = N + = \<strong>in</strong>g"" #F ; = N ; =\VP"Bar 2


6. CONCLUSION: SYNTACTIC AFFIXATION 151particular, the head has no X-bar level at all.) If we try to license (250)by the morphological conditions, though, everyth<strong>in</strong>g is <strong>in</strong> order: the rootnode <strong>in</strong>her<strong>its</strong> <strong>its</strong> syntactic features from -<strong>in</strong>g and s<strong>in</strong>ce -<strong>in</strong>g is unspeciedfor X-bar level, the root node <strong>in</strong>her<strong>its</strong> <strong>its</strong> X-bar level from the complementof -<strong>in</strong>g.Imust emphasize that with regard to elements specied for X-bar level,the assumptions I have presented here are extensionally equivalent to|i.e., a \notational variant" of|standard assumptions. <strong>The</strong> assumptionspresented here dier extensionally from standard assumptions only <strong>in</strong> theconstra<strong>in</strong>ts they place on elements unspecied for bar level|under standardassumptions, such elements do not exist. <strong>The</strong> entire extent ofmy revisionof the theory is to say \let us suppose elements unspecied for bar-levelexist". I have presented a notational variant of the standard theory, andmade the m<strong>in</strong>imal modication which perm<strong>its</strong> elements unspecied for barlevel to exist. <strong>The</strong> result<strong>in</strong>g theory, without any additional assumptions,predicts a certa<strong>in</strong> behavior for elements unspecied for X-bar level thisbehavior is precisely the behavior of -<strong>in</strong>g.6.1.eLower<strong>in</strong>g -<strong>in</strong>gOne outstand<strong>in</strong>g question is whether the structures of (238) are representationsat d-structure, s-structure, or LF. Lebeaux needed to assume thatmovementof-<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> Ing-of constructions (under his analysis) occured at LF,because if -<strong>in</strong>g were adjo<strong>in</strong>ed higher than V 0 at s-structure, then the verbshould Case-assign the direct object (for <strong>in</strong>stance), but this is of coursecharacteristic of Poss-<strong>in</strong>g, not Ing-of. As concerns Case-assignment, wewould wish to say that the representations of (238) are s-structure representations:the direct object receives Case <strong>in</strong> (a) and (b), but not <strong>in</strong> (c).For this reason, we should take the representations of (238) to be s-structure representations. This creates the problem, though, that V and-<strong>in</strong>g form a morphological unit, at least at PF. It would seem that weare forced to assume either that -<strong>in</strong>g lowers onto the verb at PF, or thatCase-mark<strong>in</strong>g is done before s-structure, and the verb raises to -<strong>in</strong>g by s-structure. Horn, Jackendo, and Baker adopt the former course. Thisrequires some comment, because there are problems which lower<strong>in</strong>g movementsraise for the ECP these problems have led to lower<strong>in</strong>g movementsbe<strong>in</strong>g generally disfavored. Ax-hopp<strong>in</strong>g (\Rule R" of Chomsky 1981), for<strong>in</strong>stance, has been replaced by verb-rais<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> Chomsky's more recent work.Under lower<strong>in</strong>g movements, the trace of movement is not c-commanded bythe moved element, hence the trace cannot escape the ECP by means ofbe<strong>in</strong>g antecedent-governed by the moved element.On the other hand, there are empirical diculties fac<strong>in</strong>g the assumption


152 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUNDthat all movements are rais<strong>in</strong>g movements, particularly as concerns axhopp<strong>in</strong>g.In French, there is clear evidence for rais<strong>in</strong>g of the verb <strong>in</strong>to In. 68Tensed verbs|verbs which have merged with the AGR which orig<strong>in</strong>ates <strong>in</strong>In|precede negative adverbs, but <strong>in</strong>nitival forms|where there has beenno merg<strong>in</strong>g with AGR|follow negative adverbs:(251) a. je ne sais pas*je ne pas saisb. *ne savoir pasne pas savoirThis receives a ready explanation if the verb raises <strong>in</strong>to In to merge withAGR (and fails to do so when no AGR is present), and items like pas appearbetween In and VP.In <strong>English</strong>, however, no similar evidence has been discovered, and theevidence <strong>in</strong> fact appears to po<strong>in</strong>t <strong>in</strong> the opposite direction. In most registers,adverbs can appear between <strong>in</strong>nitival to and VP, <strong>in</strong>dicat<strong>in</strong>g that adverbsdo appear between In and VP <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>, as <strong>in</strong> French:(252) to thoroughly read the articleIf the verb raises to In to merge with AGR, we would predict that (253)is grammatical, when it is <strong>in</strong> fact ungrammatical: 69(253) *John read thoroughly [ V t] the articleThis appears to <strong>in</strong>dicate that <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>, unlike <strong>in</strong>French, AGR lowers tothe verb, rather than the verb rais<strong>in</strong>g to AGR. Thus, the fact that thepresent analysis and those of Horn etc. <strong>in</strong>volve lower<strong>in</strong>g of axes cannotbe taken to weigh aga<strong>in</strong>st them. We can preserve the ECP by assum<strong>in</strong>g oneof the follow<strong>in</strong>g: (1) -<strong>in</strong>g leaves no trace, (2) the trace of -<strong>in</strong>g is not subjectto the ECP, or (3) the lower<strong>in</strong>g of -<strong>in</strong>g occurs <strong>in</strong> PF, where the ECP doesnot apply. <strong>The</strong> third option, lower<strong>in</strong>g at PF, is least problematic. If onewishes to take either of the rst two courses|lower<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the syntax| acaveat is <strong>in</strong> order. Assum<strong>in</strong>g that -<strong>in</strong>g lowerstoVbetween d-structure ands-structure means that the representations of (238) are <strong>in</strong> fact d-structurerepresentations, not s-structures. <strong>The</strong> s-structures and LF's must be identicalto (238) <strong>in</strong> relevant respects, though. In particular, to account forCase-assignment properties, lower<strong>in</strong>g -<strong>in</strong>g cannot be allowed to convert the68 <strong>The</strong> argument presented here is orig<strong>in</strong>ally due to Emonds.69 Note that Case-adjacency is not a problem: the trace of the verb, not the verb <strong>its</strong>elf,is the Case-assigner: this mustbeso,astheverb <strong>its</strong>elf no longer governs the directobject.


6. CONCLUSION: SYNTACTIC AFFIXATION 153V<strong>in</strong>toanN<strong>in</strong>Poss-<strong>in</strong>g and Acc-<strong>in</strong>g: we must assume that syntactic categories,once set at d-structure, cannot be changed at s-structure (thoughif we follow Lebeaux <strong>in</strong> tak<strong>in</strong>g the -<strong>in</strong>g of Ing-of to raise at LF, we mustallow labels to change between s-structure and LF). Also, if we lower -<strong>in</strong>gwithout leav<strong>in</strong>g a trace, we cannot allow the structure created by -<strong>in</strong>g tobe destroyed by the movement of-<strong>in</strong>g. For <strong>in</strong>stance, we must assume thatthe LF of the Poss-<strong>in</strong>g construction is:(254)DP/ \D NP|VP|V + -<strong>in</strong>gOtherwise the selectional properties of D would not be satised at LF.An alternativetobothlower<strong>in</strong>g of -<strong>in</strong>g and pre-s-structure Case-assignmentis this: 70 let us assume that the -<strong>in</strong>g which axes to VP or IP is not theovert morphological ax, but a separate, abstract element let us write it\ING". <strong>The</strong> structure of e.g. Poss-<strong>in</strong>g is:(255)DP/ \D NP/ \ING VP|V'|V/ \V -<strong>in</strong>gV <strong>in</strong>g raises at LF as a normal case of abstract head-rais<strong>in</strong>g, yield<strong>in</strong>g the LF:70 This analysis was suggested to me by N. Chomsky.


154 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUND(256)DP/ \D NP_____/ \[+N] VP/ \ |-> V<strong>in</strong>g [+N] V'| / \ | || V -<strong>in</strong>g ING V| |----------------- tAt LF, we may assume, morphological selectional requirements of INGguarantee that the verb has the -<strong>in</strong>g ax. <strong>The</strong> s-structure and LF of Acc<strong>in</strong>gare, similarly, (257):(257)ss: DP LF: DP______/ \ / \[+N] IP [+N] IP| / \ / \ / \ING DP's I' I [+N] DP's I'/ \ / \ / \I VP 0 V I VP| / \ | |V V -<strong>in</strong>g t V/ \ \____________|\ |V -<strong>in</strong>g \__tAn alternative to head rais<strong>in</strong>g is the percolation of some feature dist<strong>in</strong>guish<strong>in</strong>g-<strong>in</strong>g|say, [+<strong>in</strong>g], for lack ofanyth<strong>in</strong>g more <strong>in</strong>spired|to thes-structure complement of ING. Note that this would require that In <strong>in</strong>Acc-<strong>in</strong>g \<strong>in</strong>her<strong>its</strong>" the feature [<strong>in</strong>g] from <strong>its</strong> VP complement.Note that under either version of the \ING" analysis, it is still necessaryto license ING by the morphological conditions (248), not by X-bartheory. ING is not an <strong>in</strong>dependent syntactic head which projects a full X-bar projection. First, unless we permit ING to be specied only for [N],and <strong>in</strong>herit <strong>its</strong> specications for the feature [F] from <strong>its</strong> complement, wecannot assume the same item ING <strong>in</strong> all gerunds| Acc-<strong>in</strong>g, Poss-<strong>in</strong>g andIng-of. Secondly, if ING projected a full set of X-bar projections, we wouldexpect much more structure <strong>in</strong> Acc-<strong>in</strong>g and Poss-<strong>in</strong>g gerunds than we nd.


6. CONCLUSION: SYNTACTIC AFFIXATION 155For <strong>in</strong>stance, we would expect to nd adjectives <strong>in</strong> Poss-<strong>in</strong>g, and possessors<strong>in</strong> Acc-<strong>in</strong>g:(258)* DP * DP/ \ / \D NP DP's D'/ \ / \AP N' ING IP/ \ / \ING VP DP I'| / \V-<strong>in</strong>g I VP|V-<strong>in</strong>gIn conclusion, if we assume a separate, abstract item ING, we can assumeLF-rais<strong>in</strong>g of V <strong>in</strong>g , rather than PF-lower<strong>in</strong>g of -<strong>in</strong>g. Wemust takeING to have precisely the characteristics we assigned to -<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the previoussection, and the conditions (247), (248), and (249) of that section cont<strong>in</strong>ueto be necessary.6.1.fAppendix: VP- and NP-DeletionOne of the unexpected ways that Poss-<strong>in</strong>g and Ing-of dier is <strong>in</strong> their abilityto participate <strong>in</strong> \N-bar Deletion"|which wemust rename \NP-Deletion",under the DP-analysis. Consider:(259) a. *John's x<strong>in</strong>g the s<strong>in</strong>k was supris<strong>in</strong>g, and Bill's [e] was more sob. John's x<strong>in</strong>g of the s<strong>in</strong>k was skillful, and Bill's [e] was more soUnder the current analysis, both <strong>in</strong>volve the deletion of an NP under identitywith a preced<strong>in</strong>g NP. Why then is there a dierence <strong>in</strong> grammaticality?<strong>The</strong> rst th<strong>in</strong>g to notice is that John's x<strong>in</strong>g of the s<strong>in</strong>k is actuallyambiguous: it can either mean the manner <strong>in</strong> which John xed the s<strong>in</strong>k(\Act" read<strong>in</strong>g), or the fact that John xed the s<strong>in</strong>k (\Fact" read<strong>in</strong>g).Only under the Act read<strong>in</strong>g is NP-Deletion possible:(260) a. John's x<strong>in</strong>g of the s<strong>in</strong>k was skillful, but Bill's [e] was more sob. *John's x<strong>in</strong>g of the s<strong>in</strong>k was surpris<strong>in</strong>g, and Bill's [e] was evenmore so


156 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUND<strong>The</strong> explanation of the contrast <strong>in</strong> (259) is that (259a) <strong>in</strong>volvesaFactread<strong>in</strong>g, while (259b) <strong>in</strong>volves an Act read<strong>in</strong>g. Poss-<strong>in</strong>g diers from Ing-of<strong>in</strong> that the Act read<strong>in</strong>g is not available:(261) a. *John's x<strong>in</strong>g the s<strong>in</strong>k was skillfulb. John's x<strong>in</strong>g the s<strong>in</strong>k was surpris<strong>in</strong>gAcc-<strong>in</strong>g also does not admit of an Act read<strong>in</strong>g, and is not subject to NP-Deletion:(262) a. *John x<strong>in</strong>g the s<strong>in</strong>k was skillfulb. John x<strong>in</strong>g the s<strong>in</strong>k was surpris<strong>in</strong>g*John x<strong>in</strong>g the s<strong>in</strong>k was surpris<strong>in</strong>g, and Bill [e] was more soIn Acc-<strong>in</strong>g there is of course the additional factor that there is no NPpresent, only a VP. This raises the question, though, why VP-Deletioncannot apply <strong>in</strong> (262b). VP-Deletion, unlike NP-Deletion, does apply toconstructions with a Fact read<strong>in</strong>g:(263) That John xed the s<strong>in</strong>k was surpris<strong>in</strong>g, but that Bill did [e] wasmore soIn fact, VP-Deletion applies only too constructions with Fact read<strong>in</strong>gs, simplybecause there are no VP's with Act read<strong>in</strong>gs. We can expla<strong>in</strong> the failureof VP-Deletion to apply to Acc-<strong>in</strong>g by hypothesiz<strong>in</strong>g that the doma<strong>in</strong>s <strong>in</strong>which NP-Deletion and VP-Deletion apply are mutually exclusive: NP-Deletion always applies with<strong>in</strong> DP, VP-Deletion always applies <strong>in</strong> IP's thatare not with<strong>in</strong> DP. 71 Thus the Acc-<strong>in</strong>g construction is <strong>in</strong> the doma<strong>in</strong> ofNP-Deletion, not VP-Deletion. But even if we generalize NP-Deletion toapply to either NP or VP <strong>in</strong>discrim<strong>in</strong>ately (but aga<strong>in</strong>, with<strong>in</strong> DP), it stillwill not apply <strong>in</strong> Acc-<strong>in</strong>g, because Acc-<strong>in</strong>g does not have an Act read<strong>in</strong>g.This account of the application of NP-Deletion reduces to three postulates,then:(264) A. NP-Deletion applies only with<strong>in</strong> DPB. NP-Deletion applies only <strong>in</strong> constructions with an Act read<strong>in</strong>gC. A construction has an Act read<strong>in</strong>g only if it conta<strong>in</strong>s an N 071 Of course, \not with<strong>in</strong> DP" is not precise enough. We shouldsay, \IP's that are noton an s-projection path which term<strong>in</strong>ates <strong>in</strong> a DP". This dist<strong>in</strong>guishes between the IP<strong>in</strong> Acc-<strong>in</strong>g and IP's <strong>in</strong> the complement of a noun. <strong>The</strong> latter are with<strong>in</strong> a DP, but noton an s-projection path term<strong>in</strong>at<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>aDP.


6. CONCLUSION: SYNTACTIC AFFIXATION 157Poss-<strong>in</strong>g and Acc-<strong>in</strong>g dier crucially from Ing-of <strong>in</strong> lack<strong>in</strong>g N 0 , hence anAct read<strong>in</strong>g.Notice that derived nom<strong>in</strong>als are like Ing-of <strong>in</strong> be<strong>in</strong>g ambiguous betweenAct and Fact read<strong>in</strong>gs. As predicted, they permit NP-Deletion only underthe Act read<strong>in</strong>g:(265) a. Caesar's destruction of his eet was thoroughCaesar's destruction of his eet was thorough, but Antony's [e]was more sob. Caesar's destruction of his eet was quite unexpected*Caesar's destruction of his eet was quite unexpected, andAntony's [e] was even more soSuppose we adopt Lebeaux' claim that Ing-of and derived nom<strong>in</strong>als aredist<strong>in</strong>guished from other nom<strong>in</strong>als <strong>in</strong> that the ax (-<strong>in</strong>g, -tion, etc.) canraise at LF, creat<strong>in</strong>g a VP where an NP had been at surface structure(translat<strong>in</strong>g, now, <strong>in</strong>to the DP-analysis):(266)SS: NP LF: NP| / \N VP <strong>in</strong>g/ \ | tionV <strong>in</strong>g VtionIf the ax raises, we have aFact read<strong>in</strong>g if it does not, we have anActread<strong>in</strong>g. <strong>The</strong>n we can put forward the complement of (264):(267) A. VP-Deletion applies only with<strong>in</strong> IP not <strong>in</strong> DPB. VP-Deletion applies only <strong>in</strong> constructions with a Fact read<strong>in</strong>gC. A construction has a Fact read<strong>in</strong>g only if it conta<strong>in</strong>s a V 0


158 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUND6.2 Axes <strong>in</strong> the SyntaxThis analysis, <strong>in</strong> which we analyze the various gerunds as <strong>in</strong>volv<strong>in</strong>g axationof -<strong>in</strong>g to maximal categories, accounts for the facts extremely well. Anatural question, then, is the place this process has <strong>in</strong> the grammar moregenerally. Is-<strong>in</strong>g unique <strong>in</strong> behav<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> this manner? How does the processof \axation <strong>in</strong> the syntax" relate to other structures, particularly thosecreated by functional heads?6.2.a<strong>The</strong> \New Morphology"<strong>The</strong> idea of hav<strong>in</strong>g axes occupy syntactic positions <strong>in</strong>dependent of theirroots is not a new idea by any means: cf. the classic analysis of Ax-Hopp<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> Chomsky 1955. But it is an idea that has come to play acentral role <strong>in</strong> the \new morphology" developed <strong>in</strong> works such as Selkirk(1982), Fabb (1984), Sproat (1985), and especially Baker (1985b).Baker (1985a) shows that the syntactic eects of morphemes are calculated<strong>in</strong> the same order as those morphemes are axed to the root. InBaker 1985b, he gives an explanation for this observation, for a certa<strong>in</strong>subset of cases, by propos<strong>in</strong>g that the root of a complex verb actually begenerated <strong>in</strong> a lower clause. <strong>The</strong> fact that the eects of the outer ax arefelt later is simply a result of the cycle (loosely speak<strong>in</strong>g).An example is Baker's treatment of causative. <strong>The</strong> causative morphemeis generated <strong>in</strong> the matrix clause, and the verb root is generated downstairs,subsequently rais<strong>in</strong>g to the causative morpheme:(268)S/ \NP VP/ \caus S| / \| NP VP| / \|_____V NP6.2.bTurkish Gerunds and the Mirror Pr<strong>in</strong>cipleWe see a Mirror Pr<strong>in</strong>ciple of a slightly dierent sort operat<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> Turkish.Recall that we had left a few loose ends <strong>in</strong> our discussion of Turkish gerunds<strong>in</strong> section 4.3.a., namely, the location of some of the axes, such as the casemarker. Consider a fairly complex example:


6. CONCLUSION: SYNTACTIC AFFIXATION 159(269) Herkes ben-im Istakoz-a bayIl-dI~g-Im-I bil-iyoreveryone me-GEN lobster-ACC adore-NOM-1s-ACC know-PROG/3s\everyone knows I adore lobster"(lit., \everyone knows of my ador<strong>in</strong>g lobster")(270)<strong>The</strong> skeleton of the structure of the gerund is:XP/ \benim X'/ \X YP/ \Istakoza Y|bayIl-XP receives Accusative caseundergovernment from outside this suggeststhat the case marker -I should be adjo<strong>in</strong>ed to XP (or it is a functional headselect<strong>in</strong>g XP). Benim receives genitive case, as argued, from the nom<strong>in</strong>alAGR -Im-, hence -Im- must govern benim. <strong>The</strong> obvious site for -Im-, then,is X s<strong>in</strong>ce -Im- is nom<strong>in</strong>al AGR, presumably X=D. D selects NP, ontheone hand but the complements of Y are typical verb complements, notnoun complements (Istakoza is dative here, but accusative objects, etc.,can also appear <strong>in</strong> gerunds). This suggests that Y=V, and -dIg- axes toYP, convert<strong>in</strong>g it to an NP. This leaves the bare verb stem <strong>in</strong> the lowestposition. <strong>The</strong> complete structure is:(271)KP/ \K DP___| / \-I KP D'____| / \benim D NP| / \-Im- -dIg- VP/ \KP V| |Istakoza bayIl-


160 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUNDA k<strong>in</strong>d of Mirror Pr<strong>in</strong>ciple is observed, <strong>in</strong> that, if we place the axes <strong>in</strong> thesyntactic positions which theybehave as if they occupied|as we have done<strong>in</strong> (271)|the result<strong>in</strong>g hierarchy of axes exactly mirrors the observedmorphological hierarchy, with the highest axes syntactically be<strong>in</strong>g outermost,morphologically. This is the same k<strong>in</strong>d of syntactic-morphologicalcorrespondence as we observed <strong>in</strong> Baker's analysis of causatives. 726.2.cGeneraliz<strong>in</strong>g the Mirror Pr<strong>in</strong>cipleIt is tempt<strong>in</strong>g to try to generalize the type of syntactic account which successfullyyields the Mirror Pr<strong>in</strong>ciple eect <strong>in</strong> the case of causatives andgerunds to all the cases discussed <strong>in</strong> Baker 1985a. A strong hypothesiswould be that all axes occupy <strong>in</strong>dependent syntactic positions, <strong>in</strong> a hierarchycorrespond<strong>in</strong>g to the order of their morphological occurence. 73 Thishypothesis has a certa<strong>in</strong> attractiveness to it. <strong>The</strong> acquisition of gerundstructures under the current analysis would be somewhat less of a mysteryif it were the default case that axes take phrasal scope. I will notattempt to seriously evaluate the hypothesis here, though. I only notean a priori diculty <strong>in</strong> defend<strong>in</strong>g it. Namely, certa<strong>in</strong> of the grammaticalfunctionchang<strong>in</strong>g axes which Baker (1985a) discusses have eects whichwould be dicult to ascribe to the presence of a syntactic ax. I have <strong>in</strong>m<strong>in</strong>d particularly reexive/reciprocal axes. It is dicult to see how thepresence of recipr <strong>in</strong> (272) would br<strong>in</strong>g about the syntactic eect that isapparently required, viz., that DP1 and DP2 are marked as coreferential,DP2 is externalized, and DP1 suppressed (not allowed to be overt): 7472 Though I should hasten to make clear that the \k<strong>in</strong>d of Mirror Pr<strong>in</strong>ciple" observed<strong>in</strong> Turkish is not the same Mirror Pr<strong>in</strong>ciple that Baker proposed. Baker cast his MirrorPr<strong>in</strong>ciple <strong>in</strong> terms of order of application of morphological and syntactic processes: theorder of application of the morphological processes brought onby axes mirrors theorder of application of the syntactic processes brought onby those axes. In Baker'sanalysis of causative, but not <strong>in</strong> his analyses of many other morpho-syntactic processes,the order that syntactic processes occur is also mirrored <strong>in</strong> the hierarchy of positionsmorphemes occupy syntactically.73 Even if this hypothesis could be established, it would still be necessary to demonstratethat the order <strong>in</strong> which syntactic processes apply which are brought onby themorphemes mirrors the syntactic hierarchy of the morphemes.74 <strong>The</strong>se are the eects expressed by Baker's grammatical-function chang<strong>in</strong>g rule(i) NP1 VERB NP2 ::: ! NP2 VERB { :::subj obj subj obj(NP2 = NP1)(Baker 1985a:393, ex. 44)


6. CONCLUSION: SYNTACTIC AFFIXATION 161(272)IP/ \DP2 I'| / \| I VP| / \| recipr VP (IP?)| / \| DP1 V'| / \| stem t|_________________|<strong>The</strong> nature of the eects of the reexive/reciprocal morpheme seem torequire that they be expressed as operations on lexical argument structureproperties, not on syntactic structure.6.3 Verbal and Adjectival PassiveIt is reasonable to expect that other verbal axes would behave like -<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong> tak<strong>in</strong>g vary<strong>in</strong>g scope. A possibility that deserves mention, but whichI will not pursue here, is that participial -<strong>in</strong>g derives adjectival categoriesfrom verbal categories <strong>in</strong> the way gerundive -<strong>in</strong>g derives nom<strong>in</strong>al categoriesfrom verbal categories. Arguably, participles usually <strong>in</strong>volve axation of-<strong>in</strong>g to VP (or IP), but there are some words <strong>in</strong> -<strong>in</strong>g that function likepure adjectives| e.g. seeth<strong>in</strong>g, glow<strong>in</strong>g mentioned earlier. <strong>The</strong>se <strong>in</strong>volveaxation of adjectival -<strong>in</strong>g to V 0 .A possibility Iwould like to pursue here is that the passive morpheme-en behaves like -<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> ax<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> either the morphology or the syntax.In particular, I would like to explore the possibility that the dierencebetween verbal and adjectival passives is a matter of scope of -en, ratherthan a matter of category, as commonly assumed. I propose the follow<strong>in</strong>ganalysis for verbal (273a) and adjectival (273b) passives:


162 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUND(273)a. VP b. VP/ \ / \V AP V AP| / \ | |be -en VP be A/ \ / \V t -en V| | |close | close


6. CONCLUSION: SYNTACTIC AFFIXATION 163analysis. <strong>The</strong> primary such context is the complement of the verbs seem,rema<strong>in</strong>, look, sound, and a few others:(276) a. *the door rema<strong>in</strong>ed closed by the w<strong>in</strong>dthe door rema<strong>in</strong>ed full of bulletholesb. *the door looks closed by the w<strong>in</strong>d?the door looks full of bulletholesthe door looks redOne way to dismiss this evidence would be to claim that the constra<strong>in</strong>tillustrated <strong>in</strong> (276) is not VP versus AP, but active versus stative: as Lev<strong>in</strong>& Rapaport (1985) note, there are some adjectival passives that are excluded<strong>in</strong> this context, apparently because they are not stative: *the booksrema<strong>in</strong>ed unsent to the factory. However, even clearly stative verbal passivesare not good: *John rema<strong>in</strong>s known by everyone (cf. John rema<strong>in</strong>sknown to everyone). Another possibility is that the failure of verbal passivesto appear under rema<strong>in</strong>, etc. can be associated with the failure ofactive participles to appear <strong>in</strong> this context:(277) *John's tribute to Bill rema<strong>in</strong>ed glow<strong>in</strong>g through the yearscf.:*John rema<strong>in</strong>ed seeth<strong>in</strong>g at BillJohn's tribute to Bill rema<strong>in</strong>ed heartfelt through the yearsJohn rema<strong>in</strong>ed angry at BillWhat is <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g about participles like glow<strong>in</strong>g and seeth<strong>in</strong>g is that theyare clearly adjectives, hav<strong>in</strong>g undergone semantic drift: cf. *John seethedat Bill, ??John's tribute to Bill glowed. I will assume that an account forthe examples of (276) can be given along these l<strong>in</strong>es, hence that they donot constitute counterevidence to the present analysis.It has also been claimed that verbal passives are excluded from prenom<strong>in</strong>aladjective position, but here it is much more dicult to test. To be sureone is deal<strong>in</strong>g with a verbal passive, and not an adjectival passive, it is usuallynecessary to <strong>in</strong>clude some sort of adjunct like aby-phrase but phrasesconta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g post-head material are excluded from prenom<strong>in</strong>al position on<strong>in</strong>dependent grounds.In short, the distributional evidence is mixed, but appears to favor ananalysis <strong>in</strong> which both adjectival and verbal passives are APs.


164 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUND6.3.bInternal EvidenceAdjectival and verbal passives are more clearly dierentiated by their <strong>in</strong>ternalstructure. Here the standard analysis and the present analysis are<strong>in</strong> agreement: verbal passives have the <strong>in</strong>ternal structure of VPs adjectivalpassives have the <strong>in</strong>ternal structure of APs.<strong>The</strong> rst po<strong>in</strong>tisthesemantics of the two constructions. Verbal passivesfrequently denote actions adjectival passives always denote properties. Wehave already seen this as a dierence between gerunds where -<strong>in</strong>g axes <strong>in</strong>the morphology (e.g. John's writ<strong>in</strong>g: on one read<strong>in</strong>g, at least, it denotesan object, not an action) and where -<strong>in</strong>g axes <strong>in</strong> the syntax (e.g., John'swrit<strong>in</strong>g the letter: only denotes an action).Secondly, verbal passives can assign Case, whereas adjectival passivescannot. Of course, this cannot be demonstrated with the simplest examples,as the case assigned to the direct object is \absorbed" <strong>in</strong> passivization, butthis can be demonstrated with verbs that take double objects:(278) a. %A book was [sent John]John was [sent a book]b. *<strong>The</strong> book rema<strong>in</strong>ed [unsent John]*John rema<strong>in</strong>ed [unsent a book]This is straightforwardly accounted for under the current analysis, <strong>in</strong>asmuchas verbs can assign Case, but adjectives cannot (<strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>). In (278a), theobject is adjacent toaverb at s-structure, but not <strong>in</strong> (278b):(279) a. [ AP -en [ VP [ V send] a book]]b. [ AP [ A [ V send] -en] a book]6.3.cA Digression On Case AbsorptionThis raises the question, however, of what the mechanism of Case absorptionis. If we assume that the passive morpheme \absorbs" the verb'sAccusative case, we are forced to generate -en adjo<strong>in</strong>ed to V 0 : ifitisadjo<strong>in</strong>edto VP, it is too high to absorb the Accusative case assigned to thedirect object.An alternative is to assume that Accusative caseisnot absorbed, but rema<strong>in</strong>sunassigned for some other reason. We might follow Rothste<strong>in</strong> (1983),for example, <strong>in</strong> suppos<strong>in</strong>g that the motivation for NP-movement <strong>in</strong> passiveis not to provide Case for the object, but rather so that the highest VPcan satisfy the requirements of Predication: (280) is bad because VP1 is apredicate which lacks a subject.


6. CONCLUSION: SYNTACTIC AFFIXATION 165(280)IP|VP1/ \be AP/ \-en VP2/ \kiss MaryAnumber of questions arise: why can VP1's predication requirements notbe satised by a pleonastic? Why does VP2 not require a subject? <strong>The</strong>most distress<strong>in</strong>g question, however, arises from consideration of passive constructionsas postnom<strong>in</strong>al modiers. Consider sentence (281a) with possiblestructures (281b.i.,ii.):(281) a. *[the boy kissed the girl] is Johnb.i. the boy [ AP -en [ VP PRO kiss the girl]]ii. the boy [ AP OP i [ AP -en [ VP t i kiss the girl]]]We might argue that (281b.i.) is out because PRO is not high enough toconstrue with the boy. This could be solved by us<strong>in</strong>g an operator, as <strong>in</strong>(281b.ii.), parallel to the structure the man OP t to x the s<strong>in</strong>k. <strong>The</strong>n wemight claim that the problem is the ECP: the subject trace is not properlygoverned. This is not defensible, however, because we would presumablyassign an exactly parallel structure to the active participle construction:the boy OP -<strong>in</strong>g t kiss the girl, which isgood.Another alternative for the problem of Case absorption is that we adoptfor -en the analysis suggested at the end of our discussion of -<strong>in</strong>g-lower<strong>in</strong>gvs. verb-rais<strong>in</strong>g: namely, that there are two -en elements, one abstract,which we can write \EN", and one concrete. <strong>The</strong> structure of a verbalpassive is actually:(282)AP/ \EN VP/ \V DP/ \V -en


166 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUNDV en raises to EN at LF to satisfy EN's morphological selectional requirementthat it be axed to a V 0 .This opens the possibility that EN and -en divide the properties of the\passive morpheme" between them. In particular, suppose that EN hasadjectival syntactic features, while -en has \Case-absorption" properties. 75-en is <strong>in</strong> the right position to make the Case-absorption aspect of passivizationfelt, while EN is <strong>in</strong> the right position to permit verbal passive toconta<strong>in</strong> a full VP.We must be careful how this is spelled out, though. We must dist<strong>in</strong>guishbetween the assignment of Accusative case, and the assignment ofthe \second Case" <strong>in</strong> double object constructions. We must have anaccountunder which the former is absorbed by -en, but the latter is not. Alikely hypothesis is the follow<strong>in</strong>g. <strong>The</strong> ability to assign Accusative Caseisaproperty specic to certa<strong>in</strong> lexical items, which -en can negate| suppose,for concreteness, that Accusative-Case-assign<strong>in</strong>g verbs have a feature[+A], and -en possesses the feature [-A], which overrides the stem's speci-cation for [A] <strong>in</strong> the usual way. <strong>The</strong> ability to assign the \second Case"of double-object constructions, on the other hand, depends only on syntacticcategory (let us assume). If a head can license a second object by-assignment, then it need only have the syntactic category V <strong>in</strong> order toCase-assign that object. <strong>The</strong> trace of -en has the feature [-A], but is notspecied for syntactic category. <strong>The</strong> complex verb, V+-en, <strong>in</strong>her<strong>its</strong> the feature[-A] from -en, but s<strong>in</strong>ce -en is unspecied for syntactic category, thecomplex verb <strong>in</strong>her<strong>its</strong> the category V from the stem. Hence, the V en complexdoes not assign Accusative case, but it does assign the second-objectCase (if it takes a second object).This is only a sketch of an account. <strong>The</strong>re are many questions leftunanswered, such aswhy the \second-object Case" is apparently assignedto the rst object <strong>in</strong> e.g. (a book was) given John, andwhy the \secondobjectCase" is unavailable when there is only one object. If the hypothesisis to be defended that the verbal passive/adjectival passive dist<strong>in</strong>ction is tobe accounted to a dierence <strong>in</strong> the scope of -en, the details must be workedout. I leave that for future <strong>in</strong>vestigation, however.6.3.dMore Internal EvidenceReturn<strong>in</strong>g to the ma<strong>in</strong> l<strong>in</strong>e of discussion, a third way verbal and adjectivalpassives dier is that rais<strong>in</strong>g is possible with verbal passives, but not withadjectival passives:75 Assign<strong>in</strong>g Case-absorption properties to -en is rem<strong>in</strong>iscent oftheway that it isthe trace of verb-movement, not the moved verb, which reta<strong>in</strong>s the Case-assignmentproperties of the verb that moves.


6. CONCLUSION: SYNTACTIC AFFIXATION 167(283) a. John was [known to be a genius]b. *John was [unknown to be a genius]This plausibly also follows from the fact that the head is a verb <strong>in</strong> (283a),but an adjective <strong>in</strong> (283b). Arguably, adjectives, like nouns, do not acceptreduced-clause complements |this was argued for nouns <strong>in</strong> sectionII-5. I follow Lev<strong>in</strong> & Rappaport (1985) <strong>in</strong> assum<strong>in</strong>g that rais<strong>in</strong>g adjectiveslike likely, possible are exceptional, and that the non-rais<strong>in</strong>g adjectives likeobvious are the norm.Fourthly, idiom chunks can be the subjects of verbal passives, but notof adjectival passives:(284) a. Advantage was [taken t of the new computers]Tabs were [kept t on Jane Fonda]b. *Advantage rema<strong>in</strong>s [untaken t of the new computers]*Tabs rema<strong>in</strong> [kept t on Jane Fonda]This is explicable on the assumption that the parts of an idiom must besisters. This is satised <strong>in</strong> (284a), but not <strong>in</strong> (284b), as a more detailedexam<strong>in</strong>ation of the structure makes clear:(285) a. [ AP -en [ VP [ V keep] tabs]]b. *[ AP [ A [ V keep] -en] tabs]Under more standard assumptions, this account of the absence of rais<strong>in</strong>gand idiom chunks <strong>in</strong> adjectival passives is not available. <strong>The</strong> assumption bywhich these facts are accounted for <strong>in</strong> the standard analysis (e.g., <strong>in</strong> Lev<strong>in</strong>& Rappaport 1985) is that adjectival passive diers from verbal passive <strong>in</strong>be<strong>in</strong>g required to assign an external -role. This -assignment explanationis also available under the present analysis. I do not know ofany evidenceon which to base a decision between these two possible explanations.<strong>The</strong>re are a handful of other properties that are less clearcut <strong>in</strong> theirimplications, but suggest that the head of a verbal passive isaverb, butthe head of an adjectival passive is an adjective. Agentive by-phrases, forexample, are much happier <strong>in</strong> verbal passives than <strong>in</strong> adjectival passives:(286) a. the door was [closed by the janitor]b. *the door rema<strong>in</strong>ed [closed by the janitor]Also, too and similar degree words are more acceptable with adjectivalpassives than with verbal passives: this would fall out from the currentanalysis if we assume they are speciers of adjectives, but not of verbs: 7676 This assumption runs counter to assumptions I will explore <strong>in</strong> Chapter IV, viz., thatdegree words <strong>in</strong> AP are heads like determ<strong>in</strong>ers <strong>in</strong> noun phrases.


168 CHAPTER 3. THE GERUND(287) a. *the gravestone was [too damaged by thevandals last night toread]*[ AP EN [ VP too [ V damaged] by thevandals to read]]b. the gravestone rema<strong>in</strong>ed [too damaged to read][ AP too [ A [ V damaged] EN] to read]In sum, it is at least plausible that the dierence between adjectival andverbal passives is to be accounted to a dierence <strong>in</strong> the scope of -en, alongthe l<strong>in</strong>es of my account of the dierences among the three major classes ofgerunds. If so, this supports my account of gerund structure, by show<strong>in</strong>gthat the mechanisms I postulated for gerunds have a more general validity.My account of gerunds supports the DP-analysis, <strong>in</strong> turn, <strong>in</strong> that theprediction of the existence of precisely three types of gerund relies cruciallyon an analysis of Poss-<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> which itisheadedby D, and D selects anom<strong>in</strong>al maximal projection.


Chapter 4Lexical Determ<strong>in</strong>ersWe have been concerned to now primarily with the question whether thereis an AGR occupy<strong>in</strong>g a functional (i.e., In-like) head position <strong>in</strong> the nounphrase. I believe the evidence of section II-2 from languages that have overtAGR <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase, and the evidence provided by the gerund, presented<strong>in</strong> the previous chapter, constitute a very strong case for adopt<strong>in</strong>gthe position that the noun phrase is <strong>in</strong> fact a \DP", where \D" is a nom<strong>in</strong>alfunctional element, the noun-phrase equivalent of In. Now, <strong>in</strong> the sameway that Modal is the class of <strong>in</strong>dependent (i.e., non-axal) words of categoryI, and Complementizer is the class of <strong>in</strong>dependent words of categoryC, we would expect there to be a class of <strong>in</strong>dependent words of categoryD, and the natural candidate is the class of Determ<strong>in</strong>ers|the choice ofthe designation \D" was of course based on the tenuous hypothesis thatDeterm<strong>in</strong>ers are the noun-phrase equivalents of Modals. <strong>The</strong> question Iwould like to address <strong>in</strong> this chapter is whether this hypothesis is true: Aredeterm<strong>in</strong>ers of category D? Do determ<strong>in</strong>ers head the noun phrase?In the rst section, I discuss the evidence which bears directly on thequestion whether determ<strong>in</strong>ers head the noun phrase. First, I discuss evidencefrom Hungarian which shows that the strongest piece of evidence<strong>in</strong> favor of the standard analysis, namely, the fact that determ<strong>in</strong>ers andpossessors are <strong>in</strong> contrastive distribution <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>, does not <strong>in</strong> fact decidebetween the two analyses. I then discuss positive evidence for the Det-asheadanalysis. One piece of evidence is that, when determ<strong>in</strong>ers stand alone,they cont<strong>in</strong>ue to behave precisely like noun phrases, which is unexpectedunless the phrase they project is <strong>in</strong> fact a \noun phrase". I argue thatpronouns are <strong>in</strong> fact \<strong>in</strong>transitive" determ<strong>in</strong>ers. However, the most conv<strong>in</strong>c<strong>in</strong>greason for adopt<strong>in</strong>g the Det-as-head analysis is that the standardanalysis simply does not provide enough dist<strong>in</strong>ct positions to accommodate169


170 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERSthe range of elements which appear before the noun <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase.Jackendo (1977) assumed three bar-levels <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase, and he fullyexploited them the Det-as-head analysis provides the required extra specierpositions under a two-bar X-bar theory.<strong>The</strong>re are ve major categories which tmy pre-theoretic characterizationof \functional elements": complementizers, modals, determ<strong>in</strong>ers,pronouns, and degree words. 77 If complementizers, modals, determ<strong>in</strong>ers,and pronouns head larger phrases|CP, IP,DP, and DP, respectively|wewould expect degree words to do the same. In section 2, I argue that thisis <strong>in</strong> fact the case: that adjective phrases are <strong>in</strong> fact DegP's. This is almostunavoidable under the Det-as-head analysis, given the high degree ofsimilarity <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong> between adjective phrase and noun phrase. I showthat the DegP analysis perm<strong>its</strong> an elegant account ofthevery rich specierstructure of the <strong>English</strong> adjective phrase.In section 3, I return to a question of the <strong>in</strong>ternal structure of the nounphrase which I had slighted <strong>in</strong> section 1, namely, the position of descriptiveadjectives. I argue that prenom<strong>in</strong>al descriptive adjectives are the nom<strong>in</strong>alequivalent of auxiliaries <strong>in</strong> the verb phrase, and as such are syntactic headsof the noun phrase they appear <strong>in</strong>. This accounts for a large range ofdierences <strong>in</strong> the behavior of pre- and post-nom<strong>in</strong>al adjective phrases.1 Determ<strong>in</strong>er As HeadIn this section, I consider the evidence which bears directly on the Detas-headhypothesis. First, I consider evidence <strong>in</strong> favor of treat<strong>in</strong>g N asthe syntactic head of the noun phrase, argu<strong>in</strong>g that it does not <strong>in</strong> factsupport the standard analysis over the Det-as-head analysis. In the secondsubsection, I present a handful of direct evidence <strong>in</strong> favor of the Det-asheadhypothesis. And <strong>in</strong> subsection three, I show how the Det-as-headanalysis accommodates the range of speciers found <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase, thewealth of which is someth<strong>in</strong>g of an embarrassment for the standard analysis,<strong>in</strong>asmuch as the standard analysis only provides one specier position forall these elements.77 <strong>The</strong>re is actually a fth, namely, conjunctions. Conjunctions have anumber ofunusual properties, and I will not attempt a treatment of their syntax.Adpositions meet some of the criteria of functional elements, though not others (for example,adpositions freely appear <strong>in</strong> compounds other functional elements are uniformlyexcluded from compounds). Earlier I briey discussed the possibility that adpositionsdivide between true adpositions (P), which are thematic elements, and case-markers (K),which are functional elements, and do not assign -roles to their complements.


1. DETERMINER AS HEAD 1711.1 Arguments for the Standard Analysis1.1.aSelectional Restrictions<strong>The</strong>re are two major arguments <strong>in</strong> favor of the standard analysis. First,it is the noun head which determ<strong>in</strong>es whether the noun phrase meets selectionalrestrictions imposed on it. Selectional restrictions are notoriouslybad criteria for syntactic headship, however. Consider for example:(288) a large number of her friends admire a large number of her virtues#a large number of her virtues admire a large number of her friendsIf selectional restrictions determ<strong>in</strong>ed syntactic headship, wewould be forcedto take friends and virtues to be the syntactic heads of alarge number ofher friends and a large number of her virtues <strong>in</strong> (288). This is, <strong>in</strong> fact, theposition Chomsky took <strong>in</strong> Chomsky (1970): he considered a large numberof to be a \predeterm<strong>in</strong>er", which precedes the determ<strong>in</strong>er her <strong>in</strong> Spec ofN-bar. This hypothesis has s<strong>in</strong>ce been generally abandoned as <strong>in</strong>defensible.For <strong>in</strong>stance, of her friends is not a constituent <strong>in</strong> the \predeterm<strong>in</strong>er"analysis, yet there is a good deal of evidence that it is a constituent <strong>in</strong> fact.It can be extracted, for <strong>in</strong>stance:(289) Of her friends, [a large number t] admire her virtuesSelectional restrictions only require that we give an account of the waythat the noun is the semantic head of the noun phrase. We have alreadyprovided such an account under the Det-as-head analysis. In section II-5.1 we assumed that NP provides a predicate over <strong>in</strong>dividuals, and that thedeterm<strong>in</strong>er is a functor which relates that predicate to the predicate denotedby the rest of the sentence. Consider a simple case like the man admiress<strong>in</strong>cerity. Ifwe abbreviate the predicate x[x admires s<strong>in</strong>cerity] as F , theselectional restriction it imposes on <strong>its</strong> subject is this: F (x) ! animate(x).<strong>The</strong> NP man translates as x[man(x)]. <strong>The</strong> b<strong>in</strong>ds the variable position<strong>in</strong> this predicate the translation of the DP the man is x[man(x)]. It is atautology that man(x[man(x)]), hence it follows that animate(x[man(x)]),and we have accounted for the satisfaction of the selectional restrictionimposed by the predicate x[x admires s<strong>in</strong>cerity]. Similar demonstrationscan be given for other determ<strong>in</strong>ers, though I will not give them here.1.1.bDeterm<strong>in</strong>ers and Possessors<strong>The</strong> second major argument <strong>in</strong>favor of the standard analysis is that lexicaldeterm<strong>in</strong>ers are <strong>in</strong> contrastive distribution with possessors: 7878 An exception to which I will return is every: John's every book.


172 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERS(290) *John('s) the/that/some bookUnder the standard analysis, possessors and determ<strong>in</strong>ers occupy the samestructural position, hence they cannot co-occur.In contrast, under the Det-as-head hypothesis, we must say someth<strong>in</strong>gextra to account for the complementarity of possessors and determ<strong>in</strong>ers.We must adopt some constra<strong>in</strong>t along the l<strong>in</strong>es of (291):(291) AGR <strong>in</strong> D does not co-occur with lexical determ<strong>in</strong>ersAssum<strong>in</strong>g that possessors only appear when there is an AGR <strong>in</strong> D (whichassigns genitive case), the <strong>in</strong>ability ofAGR to co-occur with lexical determ<strong>in</strong>ersexpla<strong>in</strong>s the <strong>in</strong>ability of possessors to co-occur with lexical determ<strong>in</strong>ers.Because the Det-as-head analysis requires the added constra<strong>in</strong>t (291),the standard analysis would appear to be m<strong>in</strong>imal.In defense of the Det-as-head hypothesis, consider rst that (291) doesnot <strong>in</strong> fact <strong>in</strong>volve <strong>in</strong>troduc<strong>in</strong>g a new mechanism <strong>in</strong>to the grammar. Wealready assume a constra<strong>in</strong>t of the form \does not co-occur with AGR"namely,for = <strong>in</strong>nitival to. To, unlike modals, precludes AGR. Further, Iwill show that <strong>in</strong> Hungarian, unlike <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>, determ<strong>in</strong>ers and possessorsdo co-occur. Determ<strong>in</strong>ers appear <strong>in</strong> precisely the position we would expectif they occupy the position of D. This leads us to conclude that determ<strong>in</strong>ersoccupy the D position <strong>in</strong> Hungarian. For the sake of cross-l<strong>in</strong>guistic generality,wewould like the same to be true <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>. Under the Det-as-headanalysis, the dierence between <strong>English</strong> and Hungarian is only whetherthe constra<strong>in</strong>t (291) applies or not. Under the standard analysis, on theother hand, <strong>English</strong> and Hungarian have radically dierent noun-phrasestructure. Thus the Det-as-head analysis is <strong>in</strong> fact the m<strong>in</strong>imal hypothesis.1.1.cHungarianIn <strong>English</strong>, there is at least one counterexample to the generalization thatdeterm<strong>in</strong>ers do not co-occur with possessors, namely, every, as<strong>in</strong>John'severy wish. Ifwe assume that determ<strong>in</strong>ers appear <strong>in</strong> Spec of D, we wouldprobably take John's every wish to <strong>in</strong>volve an exceptional categorization ofevery as a quanticational adjective, parallel to John's many wishes. Butthen the problem is to expla<strong>in</strong> why wedonothave *the every wish, *anevery wish, *this every wish. (*Each every wish, *some every wish, etc., arepresumably out for semantic reasons.) <strong>The</strong> only noun-phrase specier thatevery co-occurs with is the possessor. This would seem to <strong>in</strong>dicate thatthe possessor does not appear <strong>in</strong> the same position as lexical determ<strong>in</strong>ers,despite appearances.


1. DETERMINER AS HEAD 173We might ignore John's every wish as an anomaly, an idiom on a parwith <strong>in</strong> as much as or the be all and end all. However, <strong>in</strong> Hungarian, theliteral translation of John's every wish, John's each apple, John's which bookare all grammatical, as Szabolcsi (1987) po<strong>in</strong>ts out:8>:>


174 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERSnot at LF. If this hypothesis is correct, it provides an explanation for thestructure (293). In (293), we must assume that there is an AGR<strong>in</strong>Datsstructure,to assign Case to the subject. Assume that a prohibition aga<strong>in</strong>stdoubly-lled D's holds <strong>in</strong> Hungarian, 79 but it applies at PF <strong>in</strong> Hungarian.This would permit -ja to occupy D at s-structure and Case-assign Peter,then lower onto the noun before PF.<strong>The</strong> claim that determ<strong>in</strong>ers appear <strong>in</strong> the position of D <strong>in</strong> Hungarian iscorroborated by the fact that Hungarian, unlike <strong>English</strong>, appears to havean equivalent of Comp <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase, as well as an equivalent of In.<strong>The</strong>re are two ways of express<strong>in</strong>g the possessor <strong>in</strong> Hungarian: either <strong>in</strong> thenom<strong>in</strong>ative case, as we have seen, or <strong>in</strong> the Dative case:(294) Peter-nek a kalapjaPeter-DAT the hat\Peter's hat"Szabolcsi argues that the Dative possessor occupies the subject positionof a noun-phrase equivalent of Comp, which she calls \Komp" (K). 80 Sheshows clearly that noun phrases like that of (294) form a constituent (theycan undergo focus movement as a constituent, for <strong>in</strong>stance). <strong>The</strong> dativepossessor diers from the nom<strong>in</strong>ative possessor <strong>in</strong> that it can be extracted,whereas the nom<strong>in</strong>ative possessor cannot:(295) a. Peter-nek lattam [t a kalapja-t]Peter-DAT I-saw the hat-ACC\Peter's hat I saw"b. * Peter- lattam [a t kalapja-t]Peter-NOM I-saw the hat-ACCSzabolcsi ascribes this assymetry to the ECP, claim<strong>in</strong>g that the nom<strong>in</strong>ativeposition cannot be properly governed from outside the noun phrase, butthe dative position can.In the same way that Hungarian has determ<strong>in</strong>ers of category D, thereis also one determ<strong>in</strong>er that is arguably of category K, namely, the denitearticle a(z). Precisely as we would predict, a(z) appears after dativepossessors, but before nom<strong>in</strong>ative possessors:(296) a. Peter-nek a kalapjaPeter-DAT thehat79 Though we would not necessarily wish to assume it holds <strong>in</strong> all languages.80 Horrocks & Stavrou (1985) make a similar claim for Greek.


1. DETERMINER AS HEAD 175b. aPeter- kalapjathe Peter-NOM hat(That the determ<strong>in</strong>er <strong>in</strong> (296b) belongs with the matrix noun phrase, andnot with Peter, isshown by the fact that <strong>in</strong> the majority dialect (fromwhich the examples of (296) are drawn), determ<strong>in</strong>ers are unable to cooccurwith proper nouns: *a Peter. In all dialects, determ<strong>in</strong>ers are unableto co-occur with pronouns (e.g., *a te \the you"), yet determ<strong>in</strong>ers are found<strong>in</strong> structures like (296) even when the possessor is a pronoun: a te kalapja\your hat", <strong>in</strong>dicat<strong>in</strong>g clearly that a belongs with kalapja, not with te.)<strong>The</strong> two types of determ<strong>in</strong>er can also co-occur: 81(297) aPeter m<strong>in</strong>den kalapja\Peter's every hat"To the extent that it is correct to postulate the structure [ KP DAT K[ DP NOM D [ NP N ]]] for Hungarian noun phrases, there seems to be littlechoice but to place az <strong>in</strong> the K position, as both the specier of K and thespecier of D are spoken for by the two types of possessor.In conclusion, Hungarian provides rather strik<strong>in</strong>g evidence that determ<strong>in</strong>ershead DP and even KP, at least as an option provided by UG.Inthe ideal case, determ<strong>in</strong>ers would have the same syntactic behavior <strong>in</strong> alllanguages. <strong>The</strong> m<strong>in</strong>imal assumption is thus that determ<strong>in</strong>ers head DP <strong>in</strong><strong>English</strong> the burden of proof is on those who would wish to make determ<strong>in</strong>ersheads of noun phrases <strong>in</strong> Hungarian, but speciers of noun phrases <strong>in</strong><strong>English</strong>.1.2 Sundry Evidence For Det As HeadHav<strong>in</strong>g disarmed certa<strong>in</strong> arguments aga<strong>in</strong>st the Det-as-head analysis, I turn<strong>in</strong> this section to positive evidence for the Det-as-head analysis.1.2.aDets That Cannot Stand AloneFirst, there are determ<strong>in</strong>ers like the which absolutely require follow<strong>in</strong>g nounphrasematerial, and which cannot appear alone, <strong>in</strong> any capacity. <strong>The</strong>re arefew words that so strongly require accompanimentasthe and a. In the caseswhere suchwords are to be found, their <strong>in</strong>ability to stand alone is encoded asthe obligatory selection of a complement. Examples are complementizerslike if, which select a sentence prepositions like of, which select a nounphrase and conjuctions like and, which select a range of complements, but81 Though they cannot be adjacent <strong>in</strong> PF: *a m<strong>in</strong>den kalapja. Szabolcsi argues for aPF rule delet<strong>in</strong>g az when it appears str<strong>in</strong>g-adjacent to another determ<strong>in</strong>er.


176 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERSmust appear with some complement. We can account for the co-occurencerequirements imposed by the without <strong>in</strong>troduc<strong>in</strong>g new mechanisms <strong>in</strong>to thegrammar, if we assumethe obligatorily selects an NP complement (hencethat it heads the noun phrase (DP)). 821.2.bDets That Can Stand AloneOn the other hand, there are other determ<strong>in</strong>ers which can stand alone, suchas that: [that man], [that] was silly. In this case, too, the standard analysispredicts someth<strong>in</strong>g slightly dierent from what we actually nd. Under thestandard analysis, the position of the determ<strong>in</strong>er is similar to that of anadjective, <strong>in</strong> that both are prenom<strong>in</strong>al, non-head maximal categories:(298)NPNP/ \ |DetP N' N'| | / \Det N AP N|AAP can appear outside of the noun phrase, and when it does so, it has <strong>its</strong>own dist<strong>in</strong>ct behavior it does not behave like a noun phrase:(299) a. he seems [ AP nice]%he seems [ NP afool]*he seems [ NP the fool]b. *[ AP nice] just walked <strong>in</strong>[ NP the/a fool] just walked <strong>in</strong>Under the standard analysis (i.e., (298)), we would expect DetP to dolikewise: when it appears outside the noun phrase, we would expect it tobehave dierently from the noun phrase, just as AP does. In fact, however,a DetP stand<strong>in</strong>g alone behaves exactly like a noun phrase: 8382 <strong>The</strong>re are a few problematic examples, suchasthe [up to a year] that it takes studentsto complete this requirement or %John runs the [better] of the two, wherethe appearsto take a PP and AdvP, respectively. However these examples are to be expla<strong>in</strong>ed, I donot believe they call <strong>in</strong>to serious doubt the po<strong>in</strong>t be<strong>in</strong>g made <strong>in</strong> the text.83 Of course, there are many complexities that the toy paradigm (300) does not take<strong>in</strong>to account, but I take the po<strong>in</strong>t to be clear enough that a more thorough discussion isunwarranted.


1. DETERMINER AS HEAD 177(300) a. *he seems [the fool]*he seems [that]b. [the fool] just walked <strong>in</strong>[that] just walked <strong>in</strong>DetP behaves exactly like a noun phrase. 84that it is a noun phrase:(301)<strong>The</strong> simplest explanation isDetPDetP/ \ |Det NP Det| | |that N that<strong>The</strong>re is, of course, an alternative analysis for these structures, one<strong>in</strong>volv<strong>in</strong>g an empty noun head:(302)NP/ \DetP N'| |Det N| |that e<strong>The</strong>re is some justication for such a structure <strong>in</strong> \N-bar" gapp<strong>in</strong>g constructions,<strong>in</strong>asmuch as, <strong>in</strong> \N-bar" gapp<strong>in</strong>g constructions, a noun complementis \left beh<strong>in</strong>d", even though the head noun has disappeared:(303) <strong>The</strong>re were some proofs of Fermat's <strong>The</strong>orem <strong>in</strong> John's new book,and [several of the Law of Dim<strong>in</strong>ish<strong>in</strong>g Returns], as well.When several takes an of-complement, the <strong>in</strong>terpretation is partitive: severalof the problems. In (303), if of the Law of Dim<strong>in</strong>ish<strong>in</strong>g Returns is acomplement ofseveral, <strong>its</strong> <strong>in</strong>terpretation (\proofs of the Law of Dimish<strong>in</strong>gReturns") is <strong>in</strong>explicable. We are led to postulate an empty head nounwhose content is supplied by proofs.84 Actually, there is at least one way that pronouns like that (if they are <strong>in</strong>deed pronouns)do not behave like noun phrases: they cannot be possessors: *that's paws. Thisis not true of personal pronouns: p <strong>its</strong> paws.


178 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERS<strong>The</strong> evidence for an empty noun head is rather weaker <strong>in</strong> \N-bar" deletionconstructions|<strong>in</strong> fact, several recent analyses (e.g. Napoli (1986),Lobeck (1985), Chao (1987)) postulate no empty head, but treat determ<strong>in</strong>ers<strong>in</strong> these constructions as pronom<strong>in</strong>al. <strong>The</strong> assumption that there is anempty noun is especially questionable for the demonstratives, which functionpronom<strong>in</strong>ally <strong>in</strong> virtually every language, regardless of the existenceof a \N-bar" deletion construction <strong>in</strong> that language.Whether or not there are noun phrases with empty heads, if we admitof any noun phrases consist<strong>in</strong>g solely of determ<strong>in</strong>ers, without the supportof an empty noun head, we are led to adopt the Det-as-head analysis.1.2.cPronouns<strong>The</strong> case for an empty nounheadisweakest <strong>in</strong> the case of personal pronouns.In this section, I argue that pronouns are of the syntactic categoryDet. 85 If so, they provide a yet stronger example of noun phrases consist<strong>in</strong>gsolely of, hence headed by, determ<strong>in</strong>ers.It is generally assumed that pronouns are nouns. If this is the case,however,itismysterious why pronouns do not appear with any noun speciers:determ<strong>in</strong>ers, possessors, adjectives, quantiers, measure phrases, areall prohibited:(304) *[the she that I talked to] was nice*[my she] has always been good to me*[dependable them] are hard to nd*[many they] make housecalls*[two dozen us] signed the petitionThis dist<strong>in</strong>guishes pronouns sharply from e.g. proper nouns, which, thoughthey most commonly appear without speciers, can productively appearwith speciers <strong>in</strong> the mean<strong>in</strong>g of \someone named N" or \someone resembl<strong>in</strong>gN":(305) [the Mary that I talked to] was nice[my Santa Claus] has always been good to me[dependable Marilyn Monroes] are hard to nd[many DoctorWelbys] make yacht-calls[two dozen John Smiths] signed the hotel register85 <strong>The</strong> resemblance between determ<strong>in</strong>er and pronoun is not a new observation. It isnoted, for <strong>in</strong>stance, by Emonds (1985), who proposes to treat pronouns as noun phrasesconta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g only speciers.


1. DETERMINER AS HEAD 179If pronouns were nouns, we would expect them to do likewise, appear<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong> usual noun positions with a m<strong>in</strong>or mean<strong>in</strong>g shift. We could expect *theshe that I talked toto mean \the female that I talked to", for <strong>in</strong>stance.Further, as Postal (1966) observes, there are situations <strong>in</strong> which personalpronouns also behave like determ<strong>in</strong>ers:(306) I Claudius/*idiotwe tradesmen/*idiotsyou *sailor/idiotyou idiots/sailors*he tradesman/idiot*they sailors/idiots<strong>The</strong>re are idiosyncratic gaps, admittedly. 86 It is not clear that I Claudiusis restrictive, or if it is only good as an appositive. It is not clear whythe deprecatory usage is bad <strong>in</strong> the rst person (it is good <strong>in</strong> German:ich Idiot), or why the non-deprecratory usage is bad <strong>in</strong> the second persons<strong>in</strong>gular. <strong>The</strong> lack of third person forms is arguably due to demonstrativesbe<strong>in</strong>g suppletive <strong>in</strong> the paradigm: those tradesmen, those idiots.Another property pronouns and determ<strong>in</strong>ers have <strong>in</strong> common is thatboth appear to be the basic site of the grammatical features of noun phrases,such as person, number, and gender the so-called \Phi" features. In particular,<strong>in</strong> many languages, determ<strong>in</strong>ers show the most dist<strong>in</strong>ctions <strong>in</strong> their<strong>in</strong>ections, more so than adjectives, and much more so than nouns. In German,for <strong>in</strong>stance, determ<strong>in</strong>ers display a full paradigm of person, number,and gender mark<strong>in</strong>g, whereas nouns are marked, for the most part, onlyfor number. 87 And like determ<strong>in</strong>ers, German pronouns mark a full rangeof <strong>in</strong>ectional dist<strong>in</strong>ctions. In <strong>English</strong> and French, pronouns are the onlyitems which still mark case. If the determ<strong>in</strong>er position is the actual site ofthe noun phrase's grammatical features (and <strong>in</strong> particular does not simplyagree with the noun, after the manner of a modifer), this <strong>in</strong>dicates that thedeterm<strong>in</strong>er is the head of the noun phrase.(Recall that some of the arguments we have already made rely on theassumption that D is the site of a noun phrase's referential features. Insection III-6.1, our accounts for many of the dierences between Poss-<strong>in</strong>gand Acc-<strong>in</strong>g were based on the presence of a D node <strong>in</strong> Poss-<strong>in</strong>g as thesite of person, number, and gender features. If Determ<strong>in</strong>er is the lexical86 It has been argued that the examples of (306) are merely appositives. If this iscorrect, the paradigm (306) fails to provide evidence for the categorial identication ofpronouns with determ<strong>in</strong>ers, but the other arguments I present rema<strong>in</strong> unaected.87 In a few cases, dative is marked on nouns |<strong>in</strong> the dative plural regularly, <strong>in</strong> thedative s<strong>in</strong>gular of some nouns (obsolescent)|and genitive is marked on mascul<strong>in</strong>e andneuter nouns.


180 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERScategory which is the locus for these features, then we are led to supposethat D = Determ<strong>in</strong>er, hence that Determ<strong>in</strong>er heads the noun phrase.)More generally, pronouns are clearly functional elements. <strong>The</strong>y belongto a closed lexical class, and though they refer, they do not describe: theydo not provide a predicate over <strong>in</strong>dividuals, but merely mark grammaticalfeatures.If we account for the similarities between determ<strong>in</strong>ers and pronouns byassign<strong>in</strong>g them to the same lexical category (namely, D), and if we assumethat both are accord<strong>in</strong>gly heads of their phrases, the structure of illustrativenoun phrases conta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g pronouns and those conta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g determ<strong>in</strong>ers is asfollows:(307)a. DP b. DP c. DP| / \ / \D D NP DP D'| | | | |we we l<strong>in</strong>guists John's Dthose those |AGR"we (are ready)" "we l<strong>in</strong>guists" "(that is) John's""(I like) those" "those l<strong>in</strong>guists"In conclusion, the Det-as-head analysis allows us to account forthesimilarities between determ<strong>in</strong>ers and pronouns, and generate them <strong>in</strong> thesame position, without be<strong>in</strong>g forced to generate all pronouns with emptynoun heads.1.2.dDets As Functional ElementsThirdly, the fact that determ<strong>in</strong>ers have the properties of functional elementslike complementizers and modals suggests that they should receive a parallelsyntactic treatment. Determ<strong>in</strong>ers are closed-class elements. <strong>The</strong>y lack \descriptivecontent" (i.e., they do not provide predicates over <strong>in</strong>dividuals|ifBarwise & Cooper (1981) are right, they are predicates over predicatesat any rate, they are quanticational rather than predicational). <strong>The</strong>yare often stressless: <strong>in</strong> many languages, they are clitics (French, Hebrew,Classical Greek) or axes (Norwegian, Son<strong>in</strong>ke). 8888 One way determ<strong>in</strong>ers dier from other functional elements is that determ<strong>in</strong>ers sometimesappear without a complement|if pronouns are <strong>in</strong> fact determ<strong>in</strong>ers, as I havesuggested. Possibly, though, the appearance of functional elements as \<strong>in</strong>transitives",


1. DETERMINER AS HEAD 1811.2.eHead-To-Head MovementF<strong>in</strong>ally, another piece of evidence is supplied by head-to-head movement.Consider examples like the follow<strong>in</strong>g:(308) a. au < a+leb. everyone < every + oneIf we assume that these morphological mergers are made possible by headmovement,we must assume that determ<strong>in</strong>ers are the heads of noun phrases.Otherwise, the ECP will be violated, at least <strong>in</strong> (308b): the moved headdoes not c-command, hence does not govern, <strong>its</strong> trace, under the standardanalysis (309a), but does, under the Det-as-head analysis (309b):(309)a. * NP b. DP_/ \ / \DetP N' D NP| | / \ |Det N D N N'/ \ | | | |Det N t every-one N| | |every-onet<strong>The</strong>re is some evidence which supports the analysis (309b). 89adjectives cannot stand alone when they appear postnom<strong>in</strong>ally:Most(310) *a man clever*a person goodSystematic exceptions are observed with everyone, someone, everyth<strong>in</strong>g,someth<strong>in</strong>g:(311) someone clever someth<strong>in</strong>g cleversomeone good someth<strong>in</strong>g good?everyone clever?everyone good?everyth<strong>in</strong>g clevereveryth<strong>in</strong>g good<strong>in</strong> a pronom<strong>in</strong>al usage, constitutes a systematic exception to the otherwise general requirementthat they take an obligatory complement. It has been argued (Napoli (1986),e.g. cf. Lobeck (1985), Chao (1987)) that Sluic<strong>in</strong>g and VP-Deletion are <strong>in</strong>stances ofComplementizers and Ins, respectively, be<strong>in</strong>g used \<strong>in</strong>transitively", as pronouns.89 As po<strong>in</strong>tedouttomebyR.Kayne (p.c.).


182 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERSThis is expla<strong>in</strong>ed under the analysis (309b). <strong>The</strong> structure of the examplesof (311) is as <strong>in</strong> (312): 90(312)DP____/ \D NP/ \ / \D N AP N'| | | |some-one good N|t1.3 <strong>The</strong> Range of Speciers1.3.aTwo Bars vs. Three BarsWhat is perhaps the most persuasive motivation for assum<strong>in</strong>g determ<strong>in</strong>ershead noun phrases, however, is somewhat <strong>in</strong>direct and theory-<strong>in</strong>ternal. <strong>The</strong>version of X-bar theory which is implicitly adopted <strong>in</strong> most current work(and explicitly argued for <strong>in</strong> Stowell 1981) is quite restrictive. <strong>The</strong> standardanalysis fails to conform to it. If the standard analysis is modied toconform to the letter (if not the spirit) of X-bar theory, it is still <strong>in</strong>adequateto account for the full range of <strong>English</strong> nom<strong>in</strong>al speciers. If we assumethat determ<strong>in</strong>ers head the noun phrase, on the other hand, we conform toX-bar theory, strictly <strong>in</strong>terpreted and we are able to account for the fullrange of <strong>English</strong> speciers.To be specic, I take the most widely accepted version of X-bar theoryto <strong>in</strong>clude these two clauses:(313) A. All non-head nodes are maximal projections, andB. Two-bar projections are maximal projections, for all categories(what we might call the \Uniform Two-Level Hypothesis", toadapt a term from Jackendo 1977)90 Residual questions, for which Ihave noanswers, are: Why does the morphologicalcomb<strong>in</strong>ation of e.g. some and one yield someone and not one-some, on the pattern ofgirl-chaser < chase girls, <strong>in</strong>-grown < grow <strong>in</strong>? and, Why is this an exception to thegeneral rule that functional elements never appear <strong>in</strong> morphologically complex words,<strong>in</strong> any language? (With respect to determ<strong>in</strong>ers, cf. the well-known examples New-Yorklover vs. *<strong>The</strong>-Bronx lover.)


1. DETERMINER AS HEAD 183What I mean by the \standard analysis" of the structure of the nounphrase is the structure (314):(314)NP/ \DET N'|NInterpreted strictly, the X-bar requirement (313-A), that non-head nodesbe maximal projections, rules out the structure (314), <strong>in</strong>asmuch asDETisa non-head which is not a maximal projection. To preserve X-bar theory,we must modify the standard structure for the noun phrase to:(315)NP/ \DetP N'| |Det NBut the structure (315) is made highly suspect by the fact that DetP (underthis analysis) never conta<strong>in</strong>s any material except Det. It is dicult tomotivate a phrasal node XP where there is no member of the class X whichever takes speciers or complements. If it means anyth<strong>in</strong>g to be a phrasalnode, it is that the node <strong>in</strong> question dom<strong>in</strong>ates more than one word, atleast potentially. This is the sense <strong>in</strong> which the standard analysis can bemade to conform to the letter, but not the spirit, of X-bar theory.<strong>The</strong> property (313-B) of X-bar theory|the Uniform Two-Level Hypothesis|raises unsolved problems under the standard analysis of noun phrase structure,<strong>in</strong> that the standard analysis simply does not provide enough dist<strong>in</strong>ctpositions to accommodate the full range of nom<strong>in</strong>al speciers. <strong>The</strong> most recent,and most thorough, study of the phrase structure of the noun phrase(and related categories, particularly AP) is Jackendo 1977. Jackendoshowed that the specier systems of nouns and adjectives, far from be<strong>in</strong>gsparse and un<strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g, circumscribe a highly-articulated range of structuraldist<strong>in</strong>ctions. Jackendo assumed there were three bar-levels <strong>in</strong> allcategories, and made full use of the range of dist<strong>in</strong>ctions that hypothesis afforded,<strong>in</strong> his analysis of noun-phrase speciers. <strong>The</strong> problem of account<strong>in</strong>gfor this range of dist<strong>in</strong>ctions under a two-bar hypothesis has not previouslybeen addressed.


184 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERS1.3.b<strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong> SpeciersLet us consider the range of speciers <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase. Determ<strong>in</strong>ersand possessors, we have already considered|they alone exhaust the s<strong>in</strong>glespecier position provided under the standard analysis. Descriptive adjectivesco-occur with determ<strong>in</strong>ers and possessives prenom<strong>in</strong>ally. It is notclear that they are speciers, however they are usually considered to beadjo<strong>in</strong>ed to N-bar. I will return <strong>in</strong> section 3 to the question of the positionof prenom<strong>in</strong>al adjectives <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase.Between determ<strong>in</strong>ers/possessors and descriptive adjectives, we nd arange of elements. <strong>The</strong>re are quantier phrases, as <strong>in</strong> the [many] good men,the [little] soggy rice wehad. <strong>The</strong>re are also four dist<strong>in</strong>ct constructionswhich, accord<strong>in</strong>g to Jackendo (1977), <strong>in</strong>volve a noun phrase <strong>in</strong> this position:measure phrase, semi-numeral, numeral, and group noun. <strong>The</strong>se areillustrated <strong>in</strong> the follow<strong>in</strong>g:(316) a. [two parts] steel (measure phrase)[one half] garbageb. [two dozen] roses (semi-numerals)[a million] starsc. [three] men (numerals)[six] eggsd. [a group of] men (group nouns)[a bunch of] mistakesTo accommodate these elements, Jackendo assumes a second, lowerspecier position <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase:(317)N''' (NP)/ \Possr/D N''/ \QP N'NP |NIt is sometimes dicult to show that the noun phrases of (316) actuallyappear <strong>in</strong> this lower position, because they vary <strong>in</strong> their ability to appearwith an overt higher determ<strong>in</strong>er. <strong>The</strong>re appears to be a constra<strong>in</strong>t rul<strong>in</strong>gout two determ<strong>in</strong>ers <strong>in</strong> a row, mak<strong>in</strong>g good examples illustrat<strong>in</strong>g the structure(317) dicult to nd. Jackendo (1977) and Selkirk (1977) note the


1. DETERMINER AS HEAD 185contrast <strong>in</strong> number agreement between examples like that three weeks andthose three weeks, attribut<strong>in</strong>g it to attachment ofthat:(318)N'''N'''/ \ / \D N'' D N''/ / \ | / \those NP N' 0 NP N'| | / \ \three weeks D N'' weeks| |that threeExamples which clearly show semi-numerals (and quantiers) to be fullphrases appear<strong>in</strong>g below the position of the determ<strong>in</strong>er, are the follow<strong>in</strong>g(Selkirk and Jackendo overlook examples of this sort):(319) a. the [nearly a dozen] men who fellthe [precisely a thousand] paper birds we foldedb. the [nearly as many] men who didn't fallIf we wish to preserve the standard analysis, we must assume that theseQP's and NP's do not occupy alower spec position. One possibility wouldbe that they are simply a species of prenom<strong>in</strong>al adjective. <strong>The</strong>re are anumber of ways that they dier from descriptive adjectives, though, thatrender this hypothesis untenable. First, though Q's are <strong>in</strong> fact a varietyof adjective, the noun phrases are clearly noun phrases, not adjectives. Ifthey pattern with descriptive adjectives, it is not at all clear why we cannothave descriptive noun phrases here, such as (320):(320) *the [nearly a doctor] medical studentFurther, though there are order<strong>in</strong>g restrictions on descriptive adjectivesthat are not syntactic (Dixon (1982), for example, identies seven semanticclasses of descriptive adjective, and argues that the preferred order ofprenom<strong>in</strong>al adjectives is determ<strong>in</strong>ed by their membership <strong>in</strong> these classes),these semantic order<strong>in</strong>g restrictions are generally very weak, and are oftenviolated for the sake of emphasis. <strong>The</strong> requirement that QP and NPprecede descriptive adjectives cannot be so readily violated:(321) a fancy new cara NEW fancy car


186 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERSthe many honest men*the HONEST many menThird, descriptive adjectives can be iterated (even with<strong>in</strong> semantic classes)|this is of course one of the orig<strong>in</strong>al motivations for generat<strong>in</strong>g them adjo<strong>in</strong>edto NOM (N-bar). Quantiers and measure noun phrases cannot be iterated:(322) a large, round, red, smooth ball*the few six menI submit that the <strong>in</strong>ability to iterate quantier/measure phrases is thatthey receive a-role from the noun, whereas descriptive adjectives are simplypredicated of the noun, and hence can be iterated ad libitum. In particular,I take plural and mass nouns to translate as:(323) [[N]]x & Meas N (d,x)where Meas N (d,x) i f(d) = f(x), under a measure f (possibly, one of many)determ<strong>in</strong>ed by the mean<strong>in</strong>g of N. For example, the translation of two cupsrice is:(324) rice(x) & Meas rice (two-cups,x)where rice is true of arbitrary quantities of rice, and at least one possiblemeasure for rice is f such that f(d) = f(x) i d and x are equi-volum<strong>in</strong>ous.Under this account, measure phrases dier from descriptive adjectives<strong>in</strong> that measure phrases are genu<strong>in</strong>e arguments of the head noun.I conclude, with Jackendo, that it is necessary to have two dist<strong>in</strong>ctspecier positions with<strong>in</strong> the noun phrase, one for possessors/external arguments,and one for quantier phrases/measure phrases. Jackendo assumedthree bar levels, <strong>in</strong> order to accommodate both specier positions.(325) illustrates how the DP-analysis makes room for the extra positionunder a Two-Bar X-bar theory:(325)Jackendoff: N''' (NP) DP: DP/ \ / \1,D N'' 1 D'/ \ / \2 N' D NP| / \N 2 N'|N


1. DETERMINER AS HEAD 187My analysis is not merely a translation of Jackendo's analysis <strong>in</strong>to aTwo-Bar DP-analysis, however. It is an advance over Jackendo's analysis<strong>in</strong> that there is no need for phrase-structure rules, not even the fairly generalschema which Jackendo assumes. We have already seen <strong>in</strong> detail howthe subject of D is licensed via an <strong>in</strong>teraction of Case and -theory. IfIamcorrect, the lower specier is also licensed by -theory. <strong>The</strong> elements whichcan appear <strong>in</strong> this position are precisely those which satisfy the Measure-role. I assume that the Measure role is left-directional, hence the requirementthat <strong>its</strong> recipients appear <strong>in</strong> specier position, not complementposition, and I assume that measure phrases are not Case-assigned by thenoun, but have their own \<strong>in</strong>herent" Case.1.3.cPseudo-PartitiveF<strong>in</strong>ally, there is one po<strong>in</strong>t on which I take issue with Jackendo's analysis.Namely, follow<strong>in</strong>g Selkirk (1977), Jackendo assumes that group nouns (see(316d)) also occupy thelower specier position <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase (Specof NP, under the DP-analysis):(326)DP/ \0 NP/ |\DP of N'| |a group menI am reluctant to adopt this analysis, because it requires one to assumea dangl<strong>in</strong>g of which does not take a complement. <strong>The</strong> major (though notthe only) evidence which Selkirk adduces for this construction|which shecalls the pseudo-partitive|is that the of N' of the pseudo-partitive isnotextractable, whereas the of DP of the supercially-similar partitive constructionis extractable:(327) a. [a number of men] like anchovies (PSEUDO-PARTITIVE)*[of men], [a number t] like anchovies*[a number t] were killed [of men who like anchovies]b. [a number of the men] like anchovies (PARTITIVE)[of the men], [a number t] like anchovies[a number t] were killed [of the men who like anchovies]


188 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERSJackendo, adapt<strong>in</strong>g Selkirk's analysis, expla<strong>in</strong>s these facts by treat<strong>in</strong>g partitivesas <strong>in</strong>volv<strong>in</strong>g a simple noun phrase with a PP complement, and assign<strong>in</strong>gpseudo-partitives the structure (326). <strong>The</strong> of-phrase cannot beextracted <strong>in</strong> pseudo-partitives, very simply, because it is not a constituent.I claim that partitives and pseudo-partitives have the same structure:[ DP D[ NP N[ PP of DP]]]. <strong>The</strong> dierences <strong>in</strong> extractability can be accountedfor by non-structural dierences <strong>in</strong> the of-PP's. In particular, let us supposethat the noun phrase under of <strong>in</strong> partitives is referential (i.e., the men <strong>in</strong>a number of the men), but the noun phrase under of <strong>in</strong> pseudo-partitivesis predicational (i.e., men <strong>in</strong> a number of men). <strong>The</strong> former is assigned a-role, but the latter is not. Instead, it is on a par with predicational ofDP <strong>in</strong> examples like:(328) a. a monster of a mach<strong>in</strong>eafoolofalawyera little slip of a girlb. acoatofwoola coat of redNone of these of PP's can be extracted either:(329) a. *[of a mach<strong>in</strong>e], it was [a monster t]*[of a lawyer], he was [a fool t]*[of a girl], she was [a little slip t]*[a monster t] was delivered [of a mach<strong>in</strong>e]*[that fool t] showed up [of a lawyer]*[a little slip t] came <strong>in</strong> [of a girl]b. *[of wool], I have [a coat t]*[of red], I have [acoatt]*[a coat t] iswarm [of wool]*[a coat t] was lost [of red]Possibly, ifno -role is assigned to these PP's (as I claim), the ECP isviolated if they are extracted. <strong>The</strong> same explanation extends to the nonextractabilityof the PP <strong>in</strong> pseudo-partitives (327a).In this way, we can give an account for the properties of the pseudopartitivewithout assum<strong>in</strong>g a dangl<strong>in</strong>g of as <strong>in</strong> Selkirk and Jackendo'sanalysis.


2. THE ADJECTIVE PHRASE 1892 <strong>The</strong> Adjective <strong>Phrase</strong>In this section, I exam<strong>in</strong>e the adjective phrase, and a nal category offunctional element, namely, Degree words. As Jackendo (1977) notes, theadjective phrase has a specier system that parallels that of the noun phrase<strong>in</strong> many ways, and rivalsit<strong>in</strong>richness. I show that analyz<strong>in</strong>g the adjectivephrase as a projection of Deg allows us to accommodate the variety ofadjectival speciers under a two-bar X-bar theory.2.1 Deg as HeadA corollary of analyz<strong>in</strong>g noun phrases as DetP's is that determ<strong>in</strong>ers arefound only <strong>in</strong> noun phrases. This corollary appears to be falsied by AP'ssuch as:8


190 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERSd. ?as under the weather as anyone I have ever seen (P)too o the wall for my tastes(332c) and (d) can be elim<strong>in</strong>ated fairly easily as irrelevant. (332d) arguably<strong>in</strong>volves an exocentric compound function<strong>in</strong>g as an adjective: i.e., [ A underthe-weather],[ A o-the-wall]. First, only a restricted set of idiomatic PPsshows this behavior cf. *John was as <strong>in</strong> the runn<strong>in</strong>g as any other candidate.Second, the degree word does not modify the head preposition, but theentire phrase, <strong>in</strong> contrast to the examples of (332c). Consider:(333) a. (they went) far downlong after (, they discovered the truth)b. *(the poor boy was) so under*(he was) too oConcern<strong>in</strong>g the examples of (332c), observe that these \degree words"dier from the degree words of (332a-b) <strong>in</strong> be<strong>in</strong>g able to take other degreewords:(334) a. *as too sick*too as happyb. as far down the roadtoo long after dark<strong>The</strong> \degree words" <strong>in</strong> PP's are not Deg's, but QP's, such as are illustrated<strong>in</strong> (332a). QP's appear not only <strong>in</strong> the specier of PP ([as far] down theroad), but also of AP, as<strong>in</strong>[as much] too big furthermore, far and longare not limited to appear<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> PP's: [far] too permissive, [long] overdue.I discuss the position of QP's shortly. (Jackendo (1977) also classies thePP-speciers of (334) as QP's, not<strong>in</strong>g that they alternate with noun-phrasemeasure phrases, as is typical for QP's: [six miles] down the road, cf. [six<strong>in</strong>ches] too big.)2.2 Adjective, Adverb, and QuantierAs for the rema<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g two examples of non-adjectives tak<strong>in</strong>g degree words|quantiers and adverbs|I claim that these are <strong>in</strong> fact subclasses of adjectives.For concreteness, I dist<strong>in</strong>guish them from adjectives proper byus<strong>in</strong>g the features Q and Adv: quantiers are [+Q,-Adv], adverbs are[-Q,+Adv], and adjectives proper are [-Q,-Adv]. Quantiers dier fromadjectives proper primarily <strong>in</strong> their semantics, <strong>in</strong> support<strong>in</strong>g the partitiveconstruction, and function<strong>in</strong>g as pronouns. Adjectives take on at least the


2. THE ADJECTIVE PHRASE 191latter two properties <strong>in</strong> the comparative and superlative: the older (of thetwo), the oldest (of the men). Adverbs dier from adjectives primarily <strong>in</strong>tak<strong>in</strong>g an -ly sux and modify<strong>in</strong>g verbs <strong>in</strong>stead of nouns. With regard totheir <strong>in</strong>ternal structure, adjective phrases and adverb phrases are virtuallyidentical, as has been frequently noted, e.g., by Bowers (1975a). Both adjectivesand adverbs take the same degree words, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g comparative andsuperlative forms, and both are modied by adverbs (e.g., suciently quick,suciently quickly). Many adverbs do not even dier from the correspond<strong>in</strong>gadjective by tak<strong>in</strong>g -ly and -ly is always lack<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the comparative andsuperlative ofadverbs. If we follow Larson (1987b) <strong>in</strong> tak<strong>in</strong>g -ly to be a\Case-assigner" for adjective phrases, then the <strong>in</strong>ternal structure of adjectivephrases and adverb phrases is <strong>in</strong>deed identical, as both are the samecategory. Let us follow Larson <strong>in</strong> assum<strong>in</strong>g that adjective phrases, likenoun phrases, require Case. Adjective phrases acquire Case by agree<strong>in</strong>gwith Case-marked noun phrases. Certa<strong>in</strong> nouns and adjectives are lexicallymarked with a feature [+C] which, Larson assumes, Case-marks the phrasewhich bears it. 91 <strong>The</strong>se are the \bare-NP" and \bare-AP" adverbs, like Ileft [yesterday], he runs [fast]. 92 Larson assumes that -ly is a prepositionaladjective Case-marker. We may take it to be a sux like -<strong>in</strong>g that axesto an adjective phrase, and provides it with the \<strong>in</strong>tr<strong>in</strong>sic Case" feature[+C]:(335)[+N,+F,+Adj,+C] (adverb phrase)/ \[+N,+F,+Adj] [+C](adjective phrase) |/ \ -lyso quickIf this is correct, we can dispense with the [Adv] feature, replac<strong>in</strong>g it withthe <strong>in</strong>tr<strong>in</strong>sic-Case feature [C], which also dist<strong>in</strong>guishes \bare-NP adverb"nouns from other nouns.As we proceed, the fact that adjective phrase, quantier phrases, andadverb phrases are identical <strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>ternal structure will become abundantlyclear. I conclude that they are subvarieties of the same syntactic category,[+N,+Adj].One piece of evidence weigh<strong>in</strong>g aga<strong>in</strong>st the DegP analysis is that certa<strong>in</strong>adjectives resist all degree words. For example:91 Larson gives the feature as [+F], not [+C]. I have altered his notation to avoidconfusion with the functional-element feature [F].92 See Larson (1985).


192 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERS(336) everyone here [ AP tested for drugs] has come up negative*as tested for drugs as anyone else*too tested for drugs for there to be any chance of error*more tested for drugs than me*so tested for drugs that I th<strong>in</strong>k I'm go<strong>in</strong>g to screamIf adjective phrases are consistently DegP's, there must be an empty Degeven <strong>in</strong> cases such as these. <strong>The</strong> appearance of an empty Deg is notdisturb<strong>in</strong>g|I assume an empty Deg <strong>in</strong> all adjective phrases consist<strong>in</strong>g justof an adjective, just as I assume an empty D <strong>in</strong> all noun phrases withoutan overt determ<strong>in</strong>er. What requires explanation is why anovert Deg cannever appear with these adjectives.Adjectives which resist degree words appear to be rather consistentlyparticiples, particularly past participles as <strong>in</strong> (336). Perhaps their <strong>in</strong>abilityto appear with degree words generalizes with the <strong>in</strong>ability of gerunds toappear with determ<strong>in</strong>ers: *the s<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g the song. Unfortunately, however,the analysis of adjectival passives I gave <strong>in</strong> section III-6.3 groups adjectivalpassives with Ing-of gerunds, not Poss-<strong>in</strong>g gerunds Ing-of gerunds do appearwith determ<strong>in</strong>ers: the s<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g of the song. Ileave thisasanunsolvedproblem.One nal question raised by the proposal that adjective phrases areuniformly DegP's is that, unlike noun phrases, adjective phrases usuallyappear without a Deg. This is probably semantically motivated, though,and does not reect any dierence <strong>in</strong> syntax. <strong>The</strong> two types of noun phrasewith which adjectives have the most <strong>in</strong> common frequently appear withoutdeterm<strong>in</strong>ers: namely, mass/plural noun phrases (\gradable" noun phrases,i.e., noun phrases that, like adjectives, take measure phrases), and predicatenom<strong>in</strong>als (which uniformly lack determ<strong>in</strong>ers <strong>in</strong> many languages, e.g., mostIndo-European languages, and sporadically lack determ<strong>in</strong>ers <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>).Henceforth, I assume that adjective phrase, quantier phrase, and adverbphrase are all actually DegP's. Deg selects AP [Adv,Q] , <strong>in</strong> the sameway Det (D) selects NP. In referr<strong>in</strong>g to adjective phrases, I will follow thesame conventions as with noun phrases: \adjective phrase" is used <strong>in</strong> <strong>its</strong>pre-theoretic sense it refers to AP under the standard analysis, DegP underthe DegP-analysis. \AP" denotes dierent nodes under the standardanalysis and under the DegP-analysis. \AP" under the DegP analysis correspondsroughly to A-bar under the standard analysis. \DegP" correspondsto AP (QP, AdvP) under the standard analysis.


2. THE ADJECTIVE PHRASE 1932.3 <strong>The</strong> \Subject" of DegIf noun phrase and adjective phrase are similar <strong>in</strong> be<strong>in</strong>g headed by a functionalcategory, it is fair to ask if they are similar <strong>in</strong> tak<strong>in</strong>g subjects. <strong>The</strong>reare a number of phrases which can appear <strong>in</strong> Spec of Deg, quantier phrasesand noun-phrase measure phrases for <strong>in</strong>stance:(337) a. [ DegP [ DegP[+Q] much] too [ AP good]][far] too permissive(he was) [little] -er k<strong>in</strong>d (than before)b. [ DegP [ DP six miles] too [ AP far]][a little] -er k<strong>in</strong>d[ten times] as fastAnother class of phrases that appear <strong>in</strong> this position, which Jackendodoes not take note of, are AdvP's: 93(338) [quite] as nice[entirely] too naive[nearly] so friendlyTo be precise, the structures I propose are these:93 <strong>The</strong>re are also a few cases where adjectives appear to take adjective phrases or PP'sas measure phrases:(i) a. [close [to a year]] overdue[nigh [on a year]] long[less [than an <strong>in</strong>ch]] too wide[more [than a mile]] o the markb. [up to a year] overdue[under an <strong>in</strong>ch] long[over a mile] longOne open question is whether the proper brackett<strong>in</strong>g is not <strong>in</strong> fact e.g. close to [ayear overdue], less than [an <strong>in</strong>ch too wide], over [a mile long], despite the fact thatprepositions do not usually take adjectival complements: *close to [overdue], *less than[too wide]. I will not attempt a proper analysis of these examples.


194 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERS(339)__DegP__DegP/ \ / \DegP Deg' DegP Deg'[+Q] / \ [+Adv] / \/ \ Deg AP / \ Deg AP0 AP | | 0 AP | |[+Q] too tall [+Adv] as nice| |muchquiteDegree words <strong>in</strong> quantier and adverb phrases behave identically, aspredicted:(340) a. much too littleten times as manyprecisely as fewb. much tooquicklyten times as passionatelyprecisely as denselyAlso,itisworth not<strong>in</strong>g that this is the same range of elements whichappears <strong>in</strong> the specier of P:(341) a. much to his lik<strong>in</strong>gfar down the roadlittle to the po<strong>in</strong>tb. six miles down the roadten times around the trackten years after graduationc. precisely <strong>in</strong> the middlenearly o the chartpractically at the endIfollowJackendo <strong>in</strong> tak<strong>in</strong>g these phrases to be <strong>in</strong> the specier of P:


2. THE ADJECTIVE PHRASE 195(342)PP/ \DegP P'DP / \P DP<strong>The</strong> specier phrases of (337) and (338) are obviously not subjects ofthe same type as the subject of the sentence or subject of the noun phrase:there is no Case-assign<strong>in</strong>g AGR, for <strong>in</strong>stance. When they are noun phrases,they are noun phrases which are \<strong>in</strong>tr<strong>in</strong>sically" Case-marked they can oftenappear as adjuncts <strong>in</strong> the VP:(343) they ran [six miles]they ran around the track [ten times]I assume that they are -marked, however, <strong>in</strong> the same way that measurephrases <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase are -marked. <strong>The</strong> case for -mark<strong>in</strong>g of measurephrases with<strong>in</strong> the adjective phrase is <strong>in</strong> fact somewhat clearer than <strong>in</strong>the noun phrase. Measure phrases <strong>in</strong> the adjective phrase alternate withpostposed PP's:(344) a. [much] too goodtoo good [by far]b. [much] too slowtoo slow [by an order of magnitude]<strong>The</strong>y can also be extracted out of the adjective phrase, unlike e.g. adverbs: 94(345) ?[how many <strong>in</strong>ches] is the door [t wider than before][how many miles] is the course [t long]*[how suciently] is the door [t wider than before]Let us consider rst the simpler case of measure phrases with positiveadjectives:(346) [six feet] tall94 Though admittedly rather sporadically. Also, speciers of too cannot be very easilyextracted: *[how many <strong>in</strong>ches] is he [t too tall to serve on a sub].


196 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERSItake the semantics of adjectives to be similar to that of mass nouns:tall denotes a certa<strong>in</strong> quantity of tallness, <strong>in</strong> the way thatrice denotesa certa<strong>in</strong> quantity of rice. This corresponds with the approach toverbmean<strong>in</strong>gs espoused earlier, <strong>in</strong> section II-5.1, where a verb like destroy wastaken to have the same denotation as <strong>its</strong> nom<strong>in</strong>alization destruction. <strong>The</strong>two dier only syntactically, not semantically. In the same way, here Itake the adjective tall and <strong>its</strong> nom<strong>in</strong>alization tallness to denote the sameth<strong>in</strong>g: a certa<strong>in</strong> quantity of abstract stu. Or more precisely, the DegPtall denotes a certa<strong>in</strong> quantity of tallness the adjective tall is a predicateover <strong>in</strong>dividual quantities of tallness. On this view, then, verbs, nouns, andadjectives are all rst-order predicates, i.e., predicates over <strong>in</strong>dividuals.<strong>The</strong>y dier only <strong>in</strong> the k<strong>in</strong>d of <strong>in</strong>dividual that makes up their denotation.Verbs are predicates over situations, nouns are predicates over objects, andadjectives are predicates over attributes. <strong>The</strong> union of situations, objects,and attributes is the universal set of <strong>in</strong>dividuals.<strong>The</strong> adjective tall translates as:(347) tall(e) & Meas(m,e) & <strong>The</strong>me(x,e)Meas and <strong>The</strong>me are both -roles. As with mass nouns, Meas(m,e) if(e)=f(m), for the relevant measure function f. 95A phrase where these -roles have been assigned, e.g. John is six feettall, translates as:(348) tall(e) & Meas(six-feet,e) & <strong>The</strong>me(John,e)i.e., John possesses a tallness which is equi-metric with six feet.Too suppresses the adjective's Measure role, and adds one of <strong>its</strong> own.John is six <strong>in</strong>ches too tall translates as:(349) tall(e) & <strong>The</strong>me(John,e) & Too(six-<strong>in</strong>ches,e,^tall)where Too(m,e,F) i the measure of e equals s concatenate m, wheres is themaximal satisfactory measure for the attribute F. That is, John's tallnessexceeds the maximal satisfactory tallness by six <strong>in</strong>ches.95 To be more precise, Meas and <strong>The</strong>me are actually classes of -roles (as arguedby e.g. Marantz (1981)), or rather, functions from words to <strong>in</strong>dividual -roles. Weshould write, more properly, Meas tall (m,e) i f tall (e)=f tall (m). Given this renement,we can account for the semantic ill-formedness of e.g. #six feet <strong>in</strong>telligent: the measurefunction of <strong>in</strong>telligence is undened for the measurement six feet, i.e., f <strong>in</strong>telligent (sixfeet)is undened. Dierent words may have the same measure function. For example,f tall =f wide hence the well-formedness of e.g. John is as tall as Bill is wide. Butf tall 6=f <strong>in</strong>telligent , hence the ill-formedness of #John is as tall as Bill is <strong>in</strong>telligent.


2. THE ADJECTIVE PHRASE 197This sketch has not been <strong>in</strong>tended as a serious semantic account. Rather,it is a cursory exam<strong>in</strong>ation of the relation between measures and attributesto illustrate that Meas has as good a claim to -role status as any otherrelation.If six <strong>in</strong>ches is -marked by too <strong>in</strong> six <strong>in</strong>ches too tall, though, it still isnot quite a \true" subject. As noted, there is no <strong>in</strong>dication of agreementbetween too and the measure phrase. Also, Spec of Deg is not a validland<strong>in</strong>g site for movement. That is, there are no examples like:(350) Your symptoms are [rubella('s) <strong>in</strong>dicative t]cf.: <strong>in</strong>dicative of rubellaSyntactically, I believe this is mostly an accidental gap, though there aresemantic motivations. Syntactically, the AGR we nd <strong>in</strong> the <strong>English</strong> nounphrase seems to be a rather marked element. <strong>The</strong>re are few languageswith true overt noun phrase subjects. <strong>The</strong>y are non-existent <strong>in</strong> Romancelanguages. Even other Germanic languages have much stronger restrictionson the elements that can appear <strong>in</strong> subject of noun phrase: <strong>in</strong> German, for<strong>in</strong>stance, it is more or less restricted to proper names. S<strong>in</strong>ce noun-phraselikeadjective phrases are marked <strong>in</strong> themselves (they are lack<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> manylanguages), it is not surpris<strong>in</strong>g that their <strong>in</strong>ternal structure lacks the moremarked aspects of noun-phrase <strong>in</strong>ternal structure.On the semantic/thematic side, the markedness of subjects <strong>in</strong> adjectivephrase is surely amplied by the fact that adjectives are uniformlynon-agentive <strong>in</strong>their-structure. Possibly, adjectives are uniformly unaccusativeas suggested, for <strong>in</strong>stance, by the fact that the external argumentsof adjectives can systematically appear as <strong>in</strong>ternal arguments whenthe adjectives are nom<strong>in</strong>alized: the happ<strong>in</strong>ess of Bill, cf. *the destruction ofCaesar Agent . 96 If such an analysis can be defended, the lack of a subject position<strong>in</strong> adjective phrases would correlate with the fact that it would neverbe needed| except for \passives" like *rubella <strong>in</strong>dicative, *your proposalsupportive.2.4 Extent ClausesDegree words license various types of extent clauses:(351) so big that I couldn't see over itas big as John said/as a housetoo big to use-er big than the other one was/than the other one96 On the other hand, -<strong>in</strong>g nom<strong>in</strong>alizations of (non-unaccusative) <strong>in</strong>transitive verbshave the same property: the cry<strong>in</strong>g of the baby, the shoot<strong>in</strong>g of the hunters.


198 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERS<strong>The</strong>se clauses are not permitted when the degree word is absent:(352) *big that I couldn't see over it%big as John said*big to use*big than the other one wasFurther, the various types of clause are specic to one degree word. Evenif a degree wordispresent, if it is the wrong degree word, the clause is notpermitted:(353) *too big that I couldn't see over it*as big than the other one was*bigger to use<strong>The</strong>se facts clearly illustrate that the extent clauses are licensed by particulardegree words.As has been frequently noted, the relation between degree words andthe clauses they license is very similar to the relation between a denitearticle and relative clause. <strong>The</strong> denite article often appears to be licensedby the relative clause:(354) a. *the Paristhe Paris that I loveb. *the book of John'sthe book of John's that I read<strong>The</strong>re are clearly dierences between this case and that of extent clauses,however. First, <strong>in</strong> the examples just given, it is the relative clause whichlicenses the article, not vice versa. Relative clauses can appear with otherdeterm<strong>in</strong>ers, and even when no determ<strong>in</strong>er appears:(355) a book that I readthat book that I readbooks that I readOn the other hand, relative clauses are prohibited with possessors:(356) *John's book that I read*my book that I lostWe can claim that the dierence between relative clause and extent clauseis only that the relative clause is less specic to a particular determ<strong>in</strong>er. It


2. THE ADJECTIVE PHRASE 199can be licensed by a range of determ<strong>in</strong>ers, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g the empty determ<strong>in</strong>ersthat appear with mass and plural nouns. But it is not licensed by [ D AGR].As Jackendo po<strong>in</strong>ts out, the paradigm (354) is also somewhat mislead<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong> that it is not only a relative clause which perm<strong>its</strong> the determ<strong>in</strong>er toappear, but any restrictive modier:(357) the Paris of the Thirtiesthe book of John's on the tableIn response, note that there are a core of cases where this is not true: 97(358) the up to a year that it has taken people to complete this requirement*this up to a year that it has taken ...*your up to a year that it takes you to complete such projectsIn conclusion, it does seem that there is a special relation between determ<strong>in</strong>erand relative clause, which parallels the relation between degreeword and extent clause. This supports the hypothesis that the two occupyparallel structural positions.An advantage of the DegP analysis emerges when we consider the questionof how the relation between degree word and extent clause is expressedstructurally. It is most economical to generate the extent clause as a sisterof the degree word which licenses it this perm<strong>its</strong> us to express theco-occurence restrictions between degree word and extent clause as normalcomplement selection. <strong>The</strong> account adopted by e.g. Selkirk (1970) is togenerate the extent clause adjacent to the degree word and extrapose itto the end of the adjective phrase: e.g. [as as a house] big ! [as] big [asa house]. Likewise for relative clauses: [the that I read] book ! [the] book[that I read]. <strong>The</strong> DegP analysis opens another possibility: we can generatethe extent clause as sister to the degree word <strong>in</strong> <strong>its</strong> surface position:(359)DegPDP___/ | \ / | \Deg AP CP D NP CP| | | | | |as A as you want the N that I read| |bigbook97 Admittedly, thisisavery curious construction whose syntax is not at all clear. Itappears to <strong>in</strong>volve the exceptional selection of a PP by the determ<strong>in</strong>er.


200 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERSIn this way, the DegP analysis allows us to preserve the selectional relationbetween degree word and extent clause, without assum<strong>in</strong>g systematic,obligatory displacement of extent clauses from their d-structure position.In fairness, though, we must observe that this analysis does not elim<strong>in</strong>ateall cases of extent clause extraposition. Extent-clause extraposition isnecessary even under the DegP analysis for examples like (360):(360) a. a [more beautiful] woman [than I'd ever seen]b. [as much] too much [as last time]2.5 Two Speciers <strong>in</strong> the Adjective <strong>Phrase</strong>If we could show that there are two dist<strong>in</strong>ct specier positions <strong>in</strong> the adjectivephrase, as <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase, that would constitute supportiveevidence for the DegP analysis, <strong>in</strong>asmuch as the DegP analysis, but not thestandard analysis, provides a specier position both under DegP and underAP.Consider for example adjectives with adverbs, but without degree words,as <strong>in</strong>:(361) [thoroughly] befuddled[hopelessly] lost[entirely] dark[understandably] distressed[obviously] contentIs the structure that of (362a) or (362b)?(362)a. DegP b. DegP/ \ / \DegP Deg' Deg AP[+Adv] / \ | / \| Deg AP 0 DegP Aobviously | | /[+Adv] |0 content | contentobviouslyIt is dicult to nd clear cases of degree words co-occur<strong>in</strong>g with follow<strong>in</strong>gadverbs, where the structure is clearly that of (362b). Usually, itisat least arguable that the degree word has scope over the adverb, not theadjective:


2. THE ADJECTIVE PHRASE 201(363) a. [so thoroughly] befuddledb. [too obviously] contentc. [so heavily] favored to w<strong>in</strong>Consider for <strong>in</strong>stance the contrast:(364) he was too content to get up#he was too obviously content to get up(cf. he was too obviously content for us to have the heart to disturbhim)Likewise, adjectival passives,aswehave seen, do not accept degree words:*so favored tow<strong>in</strong>, <strong>in</strong>dicat<strong>in</strong>g that the structure of (363c) is as given there.In other cases, the unavailability of degree words seems to be traceableto the adverb <strong>in</strong>volved:(365) *too entirely mixed-upcf.: too mixed-upentirely mixed-up*too entirely*so always rightcf.: so rightalways right*so alwaysBut s<strong>in</strong>ce the adverb contributes to the mean<strong>in</strong>g of the AP even under(362b), this does not seem to constitute decisive evidence <strong>in</strong> favor of (362a).<strong>The</strong> question extends to the other two categories appear<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> Specof Deg, viz., measure noun phrase and quantier phrase. We have, for<strong>in</strong>stance: 98(366) a. [two miles] long[three years] oldb. [much] alike[little] dierentHere there are clear mean<strong>in</strong>g dierences: two miles is clearly dependent ontoo <strong>in</strong> two miles too long, but on long <strong>in</strong> two miles long. On the other hand,98 366(b) is somewhat mislead<strong>in</strong>g, <strong>in</strong> that alike and dierent are the only adjectiveswhich take non-comparative, non-superlative quantiers.


202 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERSif there is an empty Deg<strong>in</strong>two miles long, withthe<strong>in</strong>terpretation \positivedegree", the dierence <strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>terpretation can be accounted for withoutassum<strong>in</strong>g a dierence <strong>in</strong> syntactic attachment.With the measure phrases, a preced<strong>in</strong>g degree word is impossible:(367) a. *too [two miles] long*as [three years] oldb. *too [miles] long*as [years] old<strong>The</strong> (a) examples are arguably semantically ill-formed, be<strong>in</strong>g \doubly specied".Even without a numeral <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase, though, the examplesare still bad, as the (b) examples show. 99<strong>The</strong> import of the discussion so far is that it is dicult to nd clearcutexamples decid<strong>in</strong>g one way or the other. However, I believe the example(368) does give clear <strong>in</strong>dication that the lower specier position is necessary:(368) If it's already needlessly long, it won't hurt to make it [six <strong>in</strong>chesmore needlessly long], will it?In this case, needlessly is clearly with<strong>in</strong> the scope of more,yet more modieslong, not needlessly.I conclude that the adjective, as well as Deg, takes adverb, quantier,and measure-noun-phrase speciers. <strong>The</strong> full structure of the adjectivephrase (exclud<strong>in</strong>g complements) is then:99 <strong>The</strong> only exceptions are examples that are arguably adjective compounds, such aseons-old: as eons-old as the cities of Babylon. Eons-old is dierent from e.g. years old<strong>in</strong> that it can appear <strong>in</strong>side a noun phrase, despite be<strong>in</strong>g plural:(i)an eons-old statue*a years old statuecf.:six years old*a six years old boya six-year-old boy


2. THE ADJECTIVE PHRASE 203(369)DegP/ \qp Deg'mp / \advp Deg AP/ \qp A'mp |advp Awhere \qp", \mp", and \advp" are abbreviations for \DegP [+Q] ", \DP [+measure] ",and \DegP [+Adv] ", respectively.2.6 Overview of StructuresTo sum up these last two sections, I give <strong>in</strong> (369) the full range of specierstructures which Jackendo argues for (1977:81, 165-166):(370)N'''Deg'''/ \ |Art''' N''_____ Deg''N''' / \ \ / \Q''' A''' N' Q''' Deg'N''' | N''' |NDegA'''Q'''/ \ / \Deg''' A'' Deg''' Q''/ \ / \Q''' A' Adv''' Q'N''' | |Adv''' A QAdv'''P'''/ \ |Deg''' Adv'' P''/ \ / \Q''' Adv' Q''' P'Adv''' | N''' |Adv Adv''' P


204 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERS(I have added the Adv"' under Q". I believe Jackendo omitted it onlybecause he had not <strong>in</strong>troduced the category Q <strong>in</strong> the chapter <strong>in</strong> whichhe discussed adverbs. Clearly there are adverbs <strong>in</strong> QP: suciently many,exceed<strong>in</strong>gly few.)Under the DP and DegP analysis, the structures of (370) translate<strong>in</strong>to those of (371) (aga<strong>in</strong>, recall that \mp", \qp", and \advp" abbreviate\DP [+measure] ", \DegP [+Q] ", and \DegP [+Adv] ", respectively):(371)DPDegP[+-Q,+-Adv]/ \ / \DP D' mp Deg'/ \ qp / \D NP_______ advp Deg AP[+-Q,+-Adv]/ \ \ / \mp DegP N' mp A'qp | qp |N advp APP/ \mp P'qp |advp P(<strong>The</strong>se structures dier <strong>in</strong> empirical predictions from Jackendo <strong>in</strong> thatthey conate adjective phrase, adverb phrase, and quantier phrase all asDegP, and predict that there should be measure-phrase, quantier-phrase,and adverb-phrase speciers <strong>in</strong> all three. Adverb phrases are attested <strong>in</strong> allthree, but measure phrases are not attested <strong>in</strong> adverb phrases or quantierphrases, and quantier phrases are not attested <strong>in</strong> quantier phrases. <strong>The</strong>lack ofquantier phrases <strong>in</strong> quantier phrases is not surpris<strong>in</strong>g|there areonly two adjectives (dierent, alike) that take quantier phrases, and onlyone adverb (dierently). <strong>The</strong> lack of measure phrases I leave unaccountedfor.)In conclusion, the DP/DegP analysis is quite adequate to capture thefull range of <strong>English</strong> specier structures <strong>in</strong> fact, it makes room <strong>in</strong> a twobarX-bar theory for the dist<strong>in</strong>ctions which Jackendo needed three barsto make.


3. THE POSITION OF PRENOMINAL ADJECTIVES 2053 <strong>The</strong> Position of Prenom<strong>in</strong>al Adjectives3.1 Two HypothesesHav<strong>in</strong>g considered the <strong>in</strong>ternal structure of the adjective phrase, I wouldlike to return to a question we postponed <strong>in</strong> section 1, namely, the place ofprenom<strong>in</strong>al adjective phrases with<strong>in</strong> the noun phrase.Jackendo assumed prenom<strong>in</strong>al adjective phrases were sisters of N'.Translat<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>to the DP-analysis:(372)DP__________/ \D _________NP/ / / \(qp) ap ap ... N'|N<strong>The</strong>re are two problems with this analysis: (1) it espouses an arbitrarynumber of speciers of N, and (2) it does not capture the scope relationsbetween the \speciers" of N. This is most clear with syncategorematicadjectives. Consider the example an alleged 600-lb. canary. Ifalleged, 600-lb., and [ N' canary] are all sisters, we would expect the operation by whichtheir mean<strong>in</strong>gs are comb<strong>in</strong>ed to be associative and commutative. Obviously,though, an alleged 600-lb. canary is not the same th<strong>in</strong>g as a 600-lb. allegedcanary: the latter weighs 600 lbs., while the former might not.A second (and much older)hypothesis is that prenom<strong>in</strong>al adjectivephrases are adjo<strong>in</strong>ed to a nom<strong>in</strong>al projection, presumably N-bar:(373)DP/ \D NP/ \qp N'/ \ap N'/ \ap N'|N


206 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERSA problem with this analysis is that it espouses adjunction <strong>in</strong> the base,and furthermore, adjunction to a non-maximal category. An embarass<strong>in</strong>gquestion is why there are no elements adjo<strong>in</strong>ed to any other s<strong>in</strong>gle-barprojection at d-structure: not to V', P', A', I', C', etc.A problem for both of these hypotheses is that there is a range of evidencewhich suggests that prenom<strong>in</strong>al adjectives are <strong>in</strong> some sense heads ofthe noun phrases <strong>in</strong> which they appear. I present this evidence <strong>in</strong> the nextsection.3.2 Adjective as Head of NP3.2.aToo Big a House<strong>The</strong>re is one set of examples <strong>in</strong> which it appears we have nochoice but totake adjectives as heads of noun phrases:(374) [too big] a house[yea long] a sh[how old]aman[too smart] a raccoonExamples like this are not discussed by Jackendo, though they are discussedat length by Bresnan (1973). What sets these examples apart isthat the noun phrase appears to be a complement of the adjective. In somedialects (<strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g my own), there can be an <strong>in</strong>terposed of:(375) too big of a houseas nice of a manhow long of a boardThis suggests a structure like:(376)DegP/ \Deg AP| / \too big PP/DP|(of) a house<strong>The</strong> only alternative appears to be to take too bigto be some sort of specierof a house, possibly:(377)


3. THE POSITION OF PRENOMINAL ADJECTIVES 207____DP/ \DegP D'| ? / \too big | a NP| |of houseThis leaves of dangl<strong>in</strong>g, though, without a satisfactory attachment site.What is remarkable about the structure (376) is that, despite be<strong>in</strong>gheaded by an adjective, the phrase as a whole behaves like a noun phrase,not like an adjective phrase:(378) a. Ilive <strong>in</strong> [too big (of) a house]b. Ilive <strong>in</strong> a mansion [too big to clean]*I live <strong>in</strong> a mansion [too big of a house]This <strong>in</strong>dicates that it is possible for an adjective to project a phrase whichis <strong>in</strong>terpreted like a noun phrase|but only when it takesanounphrasecomplement: *I live <strong>in</strong> [too big]. An explanation ready at hand is that therelation between big and a house <strong>in</strong> too big (of a house) is f-selection, andthat the adjective <strong>in</strong>her<strong>its</strong> certa<strong>in</strong> nom<strong>in</strong>al features from the noun phraseit f-selects. This hypothesis expla<strong>in</strong>s two additional facts: (1) Adjectivesare not Case-markers, yet the noun phrase appears without a preposition<strong>in</strong> too big a house. If the noun phrase is f-selected, it is not an argument,hence does not require Case. (2) <strong>The</strong> noun phrase complement must bepredicative, not referential, and it cannot be extracted: 100(379) a. *I live <strong>in</strong> [too big that house]b. *[which house]doyou live <strong>in</strong> [too big (of) t]*[a house], I live <strong>in</strong> [too big (of) t]This <strong>in</strong>dicates, aga<strong>in</strong>, that the noun phrase is not an argument f-selectedcomplements are <strong>in</strong> general not arguments.In sum, examples like too big (of) a house <strong>in</strong>dicate that devices arenecessary which permit adjectives to head phrases that behave like, andare <strong>in</strong>terpreted like, noun phrases. <strong>The</strong> <strong>in</strong>dependent need for such devicesopens the way for an analysis of prenom<strong>in</strong>al adjectives <strong>in</strong> which they headthe noun phrase they appear <strong>in</strong>. In the next subsections, I consider evidencethat suggests that some such analysis is the right analysis. Most of100 <strong>The</strong> <strong>in</strong>terpretation of (379a) would be \I live <strong>in</strong> that house, which is too big".


208 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERSthe facts I consider <strong>in</strong>volve dierences <strong>in</strong> the behavior of prenom<strong>in</strong>al andpostnom<strong>in</strong>al adjectives. If both are simply syntactic and semantic modiersof the head noun, dier<strong>in</strong>g only <strong>in</strong> which side of the noun they appear on,these dierences are not expected.3.2.bComplementsPrenom<strong>in</strong>al adjectives dier from postnom<strong>in</strong>al adjectives <strong>in</strong> that prenom<strong>in</strong>aladjectives may not have complements, whereas postnom<strong>in</strong>al adjectives musthave complements:(380) a. the [proud] man*the [proud of his son] manb. *the man [proud]the man [proud of his son](<strong>The</strong>re are exceptions to the requirement that postnom<strong>in</strong>al adjectives havecomplements. First, it is sucient tohave conjo<strong>in</strong>ed adjectives postnom<strong>in</strong>ally:a man bruised andbattered. Second, it is sometimes sucient tohave a specier for the adjective: a sh this big, asteak just right. Third,there are a handful of adjectives which can appear postnom<strong>in</strong>ally withoutcomplements: a man [alone], the man [responsible], six dollars [even],the example [follow<strong>in</strong>g], etc. Fourth, <strong>in</strong>denite pronouns permit postnom<strong>in</strong>aladjectives without complements (as noted by Smith (1961)): someone[bold], someth<strong>in</strong>g [terrible], etc.| though if our analysis <strong>in</strong> section 1.2.d. iscorrect, these last examples only appear to <strong>in</strong>volve postnom<strong>in</strong>al adjectives,and actually <strong>in</strong>volve prenom<strong>in</strong>al adjectives where the noun has been raisedto D.)If prenom<strong>in</strong>al adjectives f-select NP as complement, the lack oftheadjectives' usual complements is expla<strong>in</strong>ed:(381)DP/ \D AP| / \a A NP| |proud manAn analogy that is suggestive is that of auxiliary verbs. It is sometimessupposed that auxiliary verbs are verbs that take VP's and project VP's.


3. THE POSITION OF PRENOMINAL ADJECTIVES 209Averb like have can take e.g. a noun phrase when it appears as a ma<strong>in</strong>verb, but not when it appears as an auxiliary <strong>in</strong> the same way, we mightsuppose, adjectives cannot take their usual complements when they appearas \auxiliary nouns". We have already noted the very close syntactic similaritybetween A and N. Plausibly, adjectives are \defective" nouns let ussuppose that they lack only one feature, say [+substantive], to be nouns.If prenom<strong>in</strong>al adjectives are like auxiliary verbs, and take an NP complement,it is conceivable that they <strong>in</strong>herit their complement's [+substantive]specication, and hence project a category that is featurally <strong>in</strong>dist<strong>in</strong>ct froman NP. 1013.2.cMere and Utter<strong>The</strong>re are certa<strong>in</strong> adjectives, such asmere and utter, that appear only <strong>in</strong>prenom<strong>in</strong>al position, never <strong>in</strong> postnom<strong>in</strong>al or predicative position:(382) the utter <strong>in</strong>dignity cf.: the big ball*the <strong>in</strong>dignity isutterthe ball is big*the <strong>in</strong>dignity, utter and unrelent<strong>in</strong>g the ball, big and roundWe could say that these adjectives are exceptional only <strong>in</strong> obligatorily f-select<strong>in</strong>g an NP complement.3.2.dSemanticsSometh<strong>in</strong>g must be said about the semantics of adjectives when they f-select noun phrase complements. We have assumed that adjectives denoteattributes, yet obviously a big house (or too bigahouse) does not denotea quantity of bigness, but rather a house. Obviously, big has dierentsemantic values depend<strong>in</strong>g on whether it f-selects a noun phrase or not.Let us suppose that there is a general function Aux convert<strong>in</strong>g adjectivemean<strong>in</strong>gs to \auxiliary noun" mean<strong>in</strong>gs as a rst approximation:(383) Aux(F) = e,G[9a(F(a,e) & G(e)]For example, the translation of [ A' black [ NP cat]] will be:101 Actually, \featurally <strong>in</strong>dist<strong>in</strong>ct" is probably too strong. It appears that prenom<strong>in</strong>aladjectives do appear with degree words, as we will discuss below. If degree words takeprenom<strong>in</strong>al adjectives as complements, and prenom<strong>in</strong>al adjectives are featurally <strong>in</strong>dist<strong>in</strong>ctfrom NP's, we would expect degree words to take NP's as complements, whichisof course false. <strong>The</strong>refore, we must consider prenom<strong>in</strong>al adjectives and NP's dist<strong>in</strong>ct.Determ<strong>in</strong>ers are not sensitive to the dist<strong>in</strong>ction, but degree words are.


210 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERS(384) Aux(black')[cat']= (e,G[9a(black'(a,e) & G(e))]) [cat']= e[9a(black'(a,e) & cat'(e))]where black'(a,e) i black' 0 (a) & <strong>The</strong>me(e,a).If the function Aux seems just a ploy for mak<strong>in</strong>g adjectives t semantically<strong>in</strong>to an unwonted syntactic frame, there is a class of adjectives|thesyncategorematic adjectives|which <strong>in</strong>theirbasic mean<strong>in</strong>g must take NPas argument. A standard example is alleged. <strong>The</strong> mean<strong>in</strong>g of the adjectivealleged is derived from the mean<strong>in</strong>g of the verb allege <strong>in</strong> a manner someth<strong>in</strong>galong the follow<strong>in</strong>g l<strong>in</strong>es:(385) alleged' = x,F[9e,y[allege'(e,^(Fx),y)]]where allege'(e,P,x) i allege 0 (e) & <strong>The</strong>me(P,e) & Agent(x,e) i.e., e is asituation of x alleg<strong>in</strong>g that P. <strong>The</strong> translation of alleged Communist is:(386) x[9e,y[allege'(e,^(Communist'(x)),y]]It is sometimes possible for syncategorematic adjectives to appear <strong>in</strong>positions other than prenom<strong>in</strong>al position i.e., without an NP complement.In these cases, we maytake the adjective tobe\<strong>in</strong>transitivized" by supply<strong>in</strong>gthe object from context. That is, the <strong>in</strong>transitivized read<strong>in</strong>g for allegedis:(387) x[9e,y[allege'(e,^(Fx),y)]]where the predicate F is supplied from context. Thus the translation of aCommunist, alleged but not proven is:(388) Y [Y \ ^xGx 6= ], whereG = x[Communist'(x) & alleged'(x) & :proven'(x)]= x[Communist'(x) & 9e,y[allege'(e,^(Fx),y)] & ...]where context determ<strong>in</strong>es that F=Communist'.This accounts for the dierence <strong>in</strong> mean<strong>in</strong>g between a Communist, allegedbut not proven, andan alleged Communist, but not a proven Communist.<strong>The</strong> former denotes a Communist, but the latter may fail to denoteaCommunist, as predicted by the translations we have assigned to thesenoun phrases, (386) and (388), respectively. This <strong>in</strong>dicates that, for thesyncategorematic adjectives, prenom<strong>in</strong>al and postnom<strong>in</strong>al adjectives dierprecisely <strong>in</strong> whether they take the NP as an argument or not.If there is a class of adjectives which take NP's as complements <strong>in</strong> anon-vacuous manner|the syncategorematic adjectives| then the semantic


3. THE POSITION OF PRENOMINAL ADJECTIVES 211\type-rais<strong>in</strong>g" function Aux becomes rather less suspicious, <strong>in</strong> that it isnot simply a warp<strong>in</strong>g of the semantics of adjectives to make them t anun<strong>in</strong>tuitive syntax, but rather the (optional) assimilation of one class ofadjectives to the semantic structure of another, <strong>in</strong>dependent class, so thatboth may appear <strong>in</strong> the same syntactic structure.3.2.eComparativesAnother dierence between pre- and post-nom<strong>in</strong>al adjectives is illustrated<strong>in</strong> the follow<strong>in</strong>g contrast, discussed at length by Bresnan (1973):(389) a. #I have never known [a [taller] man than my mother]b. Ihave never known [a man [taller] than my mother]Bresnan assumes that the identity of the deleted phrase <strong>in</strong> the than-clause isdeterm<strong>in</strong>ed by the phrase to which the than-clause is adjo<strong>in</strong>ed at s-structure.In (389a), the clause adjo<strong>in</strong>ed to is a taller man, hence the reconstructedthan-clause is than my mother is [a X tall man]. In (389b), on the otherhand, the than clause is adjo<strong>in</strong>ed to taller, and the reconstructed clause isthan my mother is [X tall].If it is the s-structure position of the than clause which determ<strong>in</strong>es <strong>its</strong>content, however, it is dicult to account for sentences like:(390) [a taller man] arrived [than Bill]In this case, than Bill is presumably adjo<strong>in</strong>ed to the sentence a taller manarrived. Reconstruction of the than-clause yields the nonsensical than Bill(was [an X tall man arrived]). This <strong>in</strong>dicates that the than clause mustbe reconstructed at LF, after the than-clause <strong>its</strong>elf has been restored to<strong>its</strong> pre-s-structure position <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase. If the than-clause can berestored to the position of one of <strong>its</strong> traces before hav<strong>in</strong>g <strong>its</strong> <strong>in</strong>ternal structurereconstructed, however, we should be able to move than my mother <strong>in</strong>(389a) back <strong>in</strong>to the AP from which it came, before we reconstruct it:(391) a [taller [than my mother]] man =)a [taller [than my mother is X tall]] manThus Bresnan would <strong>in</strong>correctly predict that #a taller man than my motherdoes have a non-anomalous <strong>in</strong>terpretation.Under the analysis <strong>in</strong> which adjectives take NP-complements, on theother hand, the explanation is straightforward: at all levels of representation,-er has scope over tall man <strong>in</strong> (389a), but only over tall <strong>in</strong> (389b) itis the scope of -er, not the attachment ofthan S, that determ<strong>in</strong>es how thethan clause is to be reconstructed.


212 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERS(392) a. a-er[ AP tall [ NP man]] than my motherb. a man -er [ AP tall] than my motherIt is the scope of -er, not the attachmentofthethan-clause, that determ<strong>in</strong>eshow thethan-clause is to be reconstructed.3.2.fDeterm<strong>in</strong>ation of <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong> TypeA prenom<strong>in</strong>al adjective can determ<strong>in</strong>e the type of the noun phrase <strong>in</strong> a waythat postnom<strong>in</strong>al adjectives cannot. <strong>The</strong>re is a contrast between \predicative"(the term used by Bresnan (1973)) and non-predicative noun phrases.Certa<strong>in</strong> contexts select for one or the other. Bresnan uses the object positionof know, for <strong>in</strong>stance, when it is not embedded under a modal or negative,as a context that selects non-predicative noun phrases: I've known[many dogs], ??I've known [a dog like Fido]. Under a negative ormodal,both are permitted: I've never known [many dogs], I've never known [a doglike Fido]. Now consider:(393) a. I've never known [a [smarter] dog than Fido]]??I've known [a [smarter] dog than Fido]b. I've never known [a dog [smarter than Fido]]I've known [a dog [smarter than Fido]]<strong>Noun</strong> phrases with prenom<strong>in</strong>al comparatives count as \predicative" <strong>in</strong> thedesired sense, hence are barred from complement position of non-negativeknow, but noun phrases with postnom<strong>in</strong>al comparatives are permitted <strong>in</strong>this position. (<strong>Noun</strong> phrases with pre-determ<strong>in</strong>er AP's behave like nounphrases with prenom<strong>in</strong>al adjectives: I've never known [as smart] (of) a dogas Fido, ??I've known as smart (of) a dog asFido.)It appears that the predicative nature of the comparative adjective\percolates" to the enclos<strong>in</strong>g noun phrase from prenom<strong>in</strong>al position, butnot from postnom<strong>in</strong>al position. Determ<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g the features of the enclos<strong>in</strong>gphrase is a property typical of heads.3.2.gIdiomsFor completeness' sake, I will mention a nal dierence between pre- andpostnom<strong>in</strong>al adjectives, though I have no explanation for it. Certa<strong>in</strong> adjectives<strong>in</strong> idiomatic usages are excluded from prenom<strong>in</strong>al position:(394) a. *a [thrown] partycf.: p a [thrown] ball


3. THE POSITION OF PRENOMINAL ADJECTIVES 213b. a party [thrown on Saturday]the party planned and the party [thrown] were two very dierentpartiesIf this does not provide evidence for the adjective-as-head analysis, it doesemphasize the po<strong>in</strong>t that there are substantial dierences between pre- andpost-nom<strong>in</strong>al adjectives.3.3 Two More Hypotheses3.3.aAP vs. DegPIf we adopt the hypothesis that prenom<strong>in</strong>al adjectives f-select NP complements,there are two majorvariants to choose between, dier<strong>in</strong>g as towhether a prenom<strong>in</strong>al adjective phrase is a DegP or a bare AP:(395)a. DP b. DP/ \ / \D AP D DegP/ \ / \A NP Deg AP| / \N A NP|N(395a) seems a priori preferable, for the follow<strong>in</strong>g reason. We have assumedthat D necessarily selects a [-F] category, <strong>in</strong> order to expla<strong>in</strong> theill-formedness of e.g. *the each boy: [ DP each boy] is a [+F] category, hencenot a legitimate complement for the. (Note that the problem is not semantic:the word-for-word translation of *the each boy is grammatical <strong>in</strong>Hungarian.) If this is correct, it rules out the structure (395b): DegP is a[+F] category. In fact, if prenom<strong>in</strong>al adjectives <strong>in</strong>herit the feature [+subst]from their NP complements, the AP's <strong>in</strong> (395) are featurally <strong>in</strong>dist<strong>in</strong>ct fromNP's, and the DegP <strong>in</strong> (395b) is featurally <strong>in</strong>dist<strong>in</strong>ct from DP.This appears to be corroborated by examples like the follow<strong>in</strong>g:(396) a. *a [too tall] man*a [so big] shcf.:b. a man [too tall to be a submar<strong>in</strong>er]a sh [so big]


214 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERS<strong>The</strong> non-appearance of Deg's does not entail the elim<strong>in</strong>ation of the Specof AP, however. And <strong>in</strong> fact, we nd e.g. adverbs <strong>in</strong> prenom<strong>in</strong>al AP:(397)DP/ \D AP/ / \a DegP A'| / \very A NP| |big dogMore subtle, yet more strik<strong>in</strong>g, evidence aga<strong>in</strong>st (395b) and <strong>in</strong> favor of(395a) is provided by the fact that all -marked speciers of degree wordsare excluded <strong>in</strong> prenom<strong>in</strong>al position:(398) *a [[six millimeter(s)] too narrow] lens*your [[six gram(s)] too heavy] counterbalance*a [[six time(s)] as eective] medication*a [[several second(s)] quicker] timecf.:six millimeters too narrowsix grams too heavysix times as eectiveseveral seconds quickerThis is not the result of a general prohibition aga<strong>in</strong>st measure phrasesburied <strong>in</strong>side prenom<strong>in</strong>al adjective phrases. If the measure phrase is moredeeply buried, the examples improve (even though they become more dif-cult to process):(399) ?their [[six millimeters] too narrowly] ground lens?your [[six grams] too heavily] weighted counterbalance?a [[six times] as eectively] adm<strong>in</strong>istered medicationFurther, if the measure phrase is not <strong>in</strong> the specier of the degree word,but <strong>in</strong> the specier of the adjective <strong>its</strong>elf, it is acceptable: 102102 Admittedly, when the measure phrases are plural, their acceptability degrades substantially:


3. THE POSITION OF PRENOMINAL ADJECTIVES 215(400) a [[six <strong>in</strong>ch] long] pencila [[six millimeter] wide] lensa [[several month] long] hiatusThis otherwise mysterious array of facts is predicted under the analysis(395a). <strong>The</strong> examples of (398) are ungrammatical because there is no Degallowed, hence no Spec of Deg for measure phrases to occupy. In contrast,the examples of (399) and (400) have the analyses (401), which are wellformed:(401)DP__________________DP/ \ / \D ______________AP D AP/ / \ / / \a __DegP A' a DP A'/ \ / \ | / \DP Deg' A NP six <strong>in</strong>ch A NP| / \ | | | |six times Deg AP adm<strong>in</strong>istered N long pencil| | |as effectively medication<strong>The</strong> facts of (398)-(400) not only support (395a) over (395b), they alsosupport (395a) over the other two possible analyses of prenom<strong>in</strong>al adjectiveattachment discussed at the beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g of this section. As far as I can see,the only analysis that can account naturally for (398)-(400) is (395a).3.3.bQuantiersIf we adopt the analysis (395a), we must reconsider the position of quanti-ers. If quantier phrases appear <strong>in</strong> Spec of N, and prenom<strong>in</strong>al adjectivestake NP as complement, we predict that quantiers are grammatical follow<strong>in</strong>gadjectives, but ungrammatical preced<strong>in</strong>g adjectives:(i)(ii)*a six <strong>in</strong>ches long pencil*a six millimeters wide lensetc.By the same token, s<strong>in</strong>gular measure phrases are not very good <strong>in</strong> predicate ap's:*the pencil is [six <strong>in</strong>ch long]*the lens is [six millimeter wide]etc.Ihave no explanation.


216 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERS(402)DP * DP/ \ / \D AP D AP/ \ / \A NP qp A'/ \ / \qp N' A NP| |NNOf course, just the opposite is <strong>in</strong> fact the case.<strong>The</strong> alternative is to revise our earlier analysis, and assume that quantiers,like descriptive adjectives, appear on the path that leads from DPto N:(403)DP/ \D QP/ \exceed<strong>in</strong>gly Q'/ \Q AP/ / \many very A'/ \A NP| |beautiful women<strong>The</strong>re is some evidence <strong>in</strong> favor of this analysis. In particular, there isevidence that comparative and superlative adjectives are quantiers. Wehave already seen evidence that comparatives and superlatives take anNPcomplement therefore, we have positive evidence that at least some quantierstake NP complements.This is the evidence that comparative and superlative adjectives arequantiers: (1) comparatives and superlatives must precede all descriptiveadjectives:(404) a big fancy car the big fancy car*a big fancier car *the big fanciest cara fancier big car the fanciest big car


3. THE POSITION OF PRENOMINAL ADJECTIVES 217(2) comparatives and superlatives license partitives, and miss<strong>in</strong>g noun heads:(405) [the better (of the two)] will w<strong>in</strong>[the best (of all)] will w<strong>in</strong>This is otherwise a property solely of determ<strong>in</strong>ers and quantiers: 103(406) [each (of the men)] will w<strong>in</strong>[several (of the men)] will w<strong>in</strong>[many (of the men)] will w<strong>in</strong>[few (of the men)] will w<strong>in</strong>*[the many good (of the men)] will w<strong>in</strong>*[an old (of the men)] will w<strong>in</strong>*[beautiful (of the women)] will w<strong>in</strong><strong>The</strong> analysis (403) provides us with a simple characterization of the elementsthat license miss<strong>in</strong>g noun heads and partitive. We can say that thereis a unique empty nounwhich takes the partitive of-phrase as an optionalcomplement, N e . Determ<strong>in</strong>ers and quantiers select N e , but descriptiveadjectives do not. Under this account, there is a hierarchy of selectionalproperties:(407) D: selects NP,AP,NP e ,QPQ: selects NP,AP,NP eA: selects NP,APGiven these lexical selection properties, we correctly predict a large part ofthe range of <strong>in</strong>ternal noun phrase structures.3.3.cProblems<strong>The</strong> analysis I have argued for|(395a) supplemented with (403)|appearsto account most successfully for the broadest range of data, of the fouranalyses I have considered <strong>in</strong> this section. However, there are a coupleof dicult residual problems. One is that we are left with no specierswith<strong>in</strong> NP. I consider this problem m<strong>in</strong>or, for two reasons: (1) if adjectivescorrespond to auxiliaries, and NP corresponds to VP, then the absenceof speciers of NP corresponds to the absence of obvious candidates forSpec of VP. (2) the lack of Spec of NP might seem to underm<strong>in</strong>e one ofour arguments on behalf of Det-as-head presented <strong>in</strong> section 1|that there103 <strong>The</strong>re are of course the examples like the poor, but these are quite restricted <strong>in</strong><strong>English</strong>: they are possible only when they t the template \the A pl ". Cf.: *a poor isamong us, *poor are always among us, *the old poor are always among us, etc.


218 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERSare too many speciers <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase for the standard analysis toaccommodate. But we have only elim<strong>in</strong>ated Spec of N by adopt<strong>in</strong>g an evenmore radical version of the Det-as-head analysis, one <strong>in</strong> which adjectivesare heads of noun phrases as well. Further, even if we have noSpecofN,we do still have speciers of complements of D: namely, whenQPorAPare complements of D.A more serious problem is that we are left with no analysis for exampleslike the follow<strong>in</strong>g:(408) the [nearly as many] men who didn't make ita [nearly as devastat<strong>in</strong>g] attack<strong>The</strong>se examples suggest that the ill-formedness of examples like *a toobeautiful woman is the result of a surface constra<strong>in</strong>t aga<strong>in</strong>st adjacent D's andDeg's, not the result of a structural constra<strong>in</strong>t aga<strong>in</strong>st DegP complementsof D.I will suggest a possible approach to this problem, though I must notefrom the outset that my solution is not fully satisfactory.A rst observation is that Deg's vary widely <strong>in</strong> their ability to appear<strong>in</strong> structures like (408). In my judgment, the best examples are with -erand -est (or more and most) as degree words|these are good even withoutan <strong>in</strong>terven<strong>in</strong>g adverb. With an <strong>in</strong>terven<strong>in</strong>g adverb, as is rather good, andtoo sometimes other Degs, such asso, that, are never good:(409) *(I have never before encountered) a [nearly so virulent] stra<strong>in</strong>cf.:*(I have never before seen) a [quite that beautiful] womanp (I have never before encountered) a stra<strong>in</strong> [nearly so virulent]p (I have never before seen) a woman [quite that beautiful]Let us beg<strong>in</strong> with -er and -est. Asmentioned, these Deg's appear consistentlyunder determ<strong>in</strong>ers, even without an <strong>in</strong>terven<strong>in</strong>g adverb:(410) the better manthe best man<strong>The</strong>re are even examples that seem to show that -er and -est appearunder Deg's:(411) a. he does it [the best (of all)]b. he ran [the quicker of the two]


3. THE POSITION OF PRENOMINAL ADJECTIVES 219c. [the quicker you run], the quicker I'll catch youd. [the better to eat you with]All of these phrases function as adverbs, not arguments. For this reason,their structure would appear to be e.g.:(412)DegP/ \Deg AP| |the besti.e., the, like that, can function both as a Det and as a Deg. I do not adoptthis analysis, however, because of the fact that partitive of is licensed <strong>in</strong>these structures (see (411a,b)). I have assumed that partitive of is licensedonly by N e this requires the structure (413) for the examples (411):(413)DP/ \D AP| / \the A NP| / \better N PP| |e of the twoWe can take these to be \bare-NP adverbs", as Larson (1985) christensexamples like yesterday. <strong>The</strong> proper semantics are obta<strong>in</strong>ed by allow<strong>in</strong>g N eto range over adverb mean<strong>in</strong>gs: manners, speeds, etc.<strong>The</strong> abilityof-er and -est to co-occur with determ<strong>in</strong>ers seems clearly tobe related to the fact that they are axes. It is rather rem<strong>in</strong>iscent of casesof doubled determ<strong>in</strong>ers <strong>in</strong> languages like Norwegian and Son<strong>in</strong>ke that haveaxal determ<strong>in</strong>ers. In Norwegian, doubled determ<strong>in</strong>ers are not normallygrammatical but doubl<strong>in</strong>g does occur when the second determ<strong>in</strong>er is thedenite ax -en: 104(414) *denne hver skothis each shoe104 Data from Hellan (1986).


220 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERSdenne sko-enthis shoe-theSimilarly, <strong>in</strong> Son<strong>in</strong>ke (a Mande language of Mali), doubled determ<strong>in</strong>ers arepermitted when the second determ<strong>in</strong>er is the axal denite determ<strong>in</strong>er: 105(415) ke samaqe-nthis snake-the<strong>The</strong>se examples suggest that there is a constra<strong>in</strong>t aga<strong>in</strong>st doubly-lledDet's at s-structure, but not at LF. <strong>The</strong> axal determ<strong>in</strong>er can raise at LF,yield<strong>in</strong>g e.g.:(416) [ DP [ D denne -en i ][ NP [ N sko-t i ]]]A similar process is necessary <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong> if we are to assume that the determ<strong>in</strong>eris the site of \Phi-features", as I suggested earlier hence that theplural morpheme must raise <strong>in</strong>to a (possibly lled) Det at LF.Let us return to comparatives and superlatives now. We can assign thefollow<strong>in</strong>g well-formed LF to comparatives and superlatives under determ<strong>in</strong>ers:(417) [ DP [ D a-er i ][ AP pretty-t i [ NP girl]]]If this is correct, it implies that examples like *as prettiest 106 are notungrammatical because there are two Deg's| -er should be able to raise<strong>in</strong>to a lled Deg <strong>in</strong> the same way it raises <strong>in</strong>to a lled Det|but rather forsemantic reasons presumably for the same reasons that examples like *veryso pretty are out.<strong>The</strong> structure (417) is not available for Deg's other than -er and -estbecause other Deg's must be base-generated <strong>in</strong> the Deg/Det position, notaxed to adjectives.However, more and most behave just like -er and -est with respect totheir ability to appear under determ<strong>in</strong>ers:(418) a more beautiful womanthe most beautiful womanOne possibility is that these are simply quantiers <strong>in</strong> Spec of A, the comparativeand superlative ofmuch. As has long been puzzled over, though(Bresnan (1973), Jackendo (1977)), this leaves unexpla<strong>in</strong>ed why much105 Data from my own eld work, conducted <strong>in</strong> 1982-83.106 <strong>The</strong> <strong>in</strong>tended read<strong>in</strong>g is not \as much prettier"| where as takes scope over -er, notpretty|but rather someth<strong>in</strong>g like \as pretty, whichistosay, the prettiest".


3. THE POSITION OF PRENOMINAL ADJECTIVES 221<strong>in</strong> the positive degree is ill-formed <strong>in</strong> these examples: *a much beautifulwoman.Iwould like to suggest that more and most are exactly like -er and -est <strong>in</strong>every respect, except that they are not phonological axes. In particular,I suggest that they are syntactic axes, much like -<strong>in</strong>g. <strong>The</strong>y ax toAP, and raise <strong>in</strong>to Deg/Det at LF <strong>in</strong> this way they escape the s-structureprohibition on doubly-lled D:(419)SS: DP DP/ \ / \D AP D AP/ \ / \more AP A NP/ \ / \ |A NP A -er N|NLF: [DP [D a more_i] [AP t_i [AP beautiful woman]]]<strong>The</strong> subtree [ AP more AP] is licensed by morphological conditions, not byX-bar theory. More is not adjo<strong>in</strong>ed to AP rather it is the head of [ AP moreAP] <strong>in</strong> the same waythat-er is the head of [ A A -er]. Hence, more occupiesan A-position, not an A-bar position, and <strong>its</strong> rais<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>to Deg/Det is propermovement.In short, I propose that there are certa<strong>in</strong> elements|more and most|which are not phonologically axes, but nonetheless behave syntacticallylike axes.Possibly, a similar analysis can be applied to problematic cases like anearly as devastat<strong>in</strong>g attack. As I noted, only certa<strong>in</strong> Deg's can appear<strong>in</strong> these structures, and then only sporadically and with large variances <strong>in</strong>speaker judgments. <strong>The</strong>re also appear to be idiosyncratic PF constra<strong>in</strong>tson the process. In addition to the prohibition aga<strong>in</strong>st str<strong>in</strong>g-adjacent Det'sand Deg's, there is a prohibition aga<strong>in</strong>st mono-syllabic adjectives <strong>in</strong> thisconstruction: *a nearly as long <strong>in</strong>terview vs. ?a nearly as lengthy <strong>in</strong>terview.<strong>The</strong>se facts suggest that whatever process is <strong>in</strong>volved, it is rathermarked. A reasonable hypothesis is that Deg's other than more and mostare sporadically reanalyzed as syntactic axes, as more and most have donecompletely. As is fairly susceptible to this reanalysis, too somewhat less so,and so and that not at all.Some tenuous support for this hypothesis is supplied by examples likehis too-eager gr<strong>in</strong>, where too actually appears adjacent to a determ<strong>in</strong>er, but


222 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERSthere is a strong <strong>in</strong>tuition that it forms a compound with eager, <strong>in</strong> somesense. Under the present hypothesis, it \compounds" with eager <strong>in</strong> that itis a syntactic ax on the AP headed by eager.A nal stumbl<strong>in</strong>g-block is the fact that not only adjectives and quanti-ers, but also measure nouns, t <strong>in</strong>to the paradigm of anearly as devastat<strong>in</strong>gattack. Consider:(420) *the [a dozen] men who camethe [nearly a dozen] men who cameIn this case, there are two courses open to us. We might assume that areanalyzes as an ax on dozen. Alternatively, itmay be that a dozen is <strong>in</strong>fact an NP, notaDP.Perlmutter (1970) argues that a is not a determ<strong>in</strong>er,but a reduced form of the numeral one. Whether his analysis is corrector not, there are certa<strong>in</strong> advantagesthataccruetotak<strong>in</strong>ga to have someanalysis other than as a determ<strong>in</strong>er. <strong>The</strong>re is a class of phrases of the formaA*NPthat are set apart from argumental noun phrases <strong>in</strong> a number ofways. Examples are:(421) too big [a house]a monster of [a problem]two of [a k<strong>in</strong>d]Semantically, these phrases are predicates, not arguments. <strong>The</strong> examplesof (421) are <strong>in</strong>terpreted (very roughly) as:(422) too-big'(x) & house'(x)monster'(x) & problem'(x)two'(X) & of-a-k<strong>in</strong>d'(X)In particular, the a-phrases do not <strong>in</strong>troduce a separate variable rang<strong>in</strong>gover objects, but are simply predicates which are applied to the variable<strong>in</strong>troduced by the matrix phrase.Correspond<strong>in</strong>gly, these phrases can never be extracted:(423) *[a house], that's too big of*[a problem], that's a monster of*[a k<strong>in</strong>d], they're two of*only too big (of) was available [(of) a house]*a monster (of) came up [(of) a problem]*two (of) were there [(of) a k<strong>in</strong>d]


3. THE POSITION OF PRENOMINAL ADJECTIVES 223Both of these facts would be expla<strong>in</strong>ed if the a-phrases <strong>in</strong> question wereNP's, not DP's. NP's are predicates, not arguments NP's cannot be extraposedlike DP's. If this is correct, we can take nearly a dozen <strong>in</strong> the nearlya dozen men who came to be an NP, not a DP.An added benet is that s<strong>in</strong>gular and plural dozen dier markedly lessunder this analysis than under most analyses. Consider the paradigm:(424) a dozen mendozens of mendozens of the men(Pseudo-partitive)(Partitive)Under the current analysis, the structures are:(425)a. DP b. DP c. DP/ \ / \ / \D NP D NP D NP/ \ / \ / \N NP N KP N KP| | | / \ | / \dozen men dozens of NP dozens of DP| |menthe menDozen diers from dozens only <strong>in</strong> that it f-selects an NP rather than aKP. Dozens f-selects either an argumental KP (one conta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g a DP) or apredicative KP (one conta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g an NP: recall that pseudo-partitives (i.e.,(425b)) cannot be extracted, which would be expla<strong>in</strong>ed if they are NP's,not DP's: severaltwere asked [of */ p the questions concern<strong>in</strong>g electromagnetism]).In <strong>its</strong> current state, this solution to the problems which face the Adjas-headanalysis is based on somewhat scanty evidence, and to that extentspeculative. I must leave renements, or a new and more adequate solution,to future research.


224 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERS4 ConclusionTo sum up, the Det-as-head analysis is thoroughly defensible, and has anumber of advantages over the standard analysis. <strong>The</strong> chief motivationfor adopt<strong>in</strong>g the Det-as-head analysis is conceptual, however. <strong>The</strong> DPanalysisperm<strong>its</strong> us to preserve the same restrictive characterization of X-bar theory which motivates the IP-analysis of the sentence, and the Detas-headanalysis <strong>in</strong>volves assign<strong>in</strong>g determ<strong>in</strong>ers an analysis which parallelscurrent analyses of other functional elements, such as complementizers andmodals. Further, the Det-as-head analysis provides \room" for the fullrange of speciers found <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase.Support for this analysis of determ<strong>in</strong>ers is derived from exam<strong>in</strong>ationof the adjective phrase. In <strong>English</strong>, noun phrase and adjective phrasehave a great deal <strong>in</strong> common, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g the existence of degree elementsas adjective-phrase correlates of determ<strong>in</strong>ers <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase. I arguethat degree elements are exactly parallel to determ<strong>in</strong>ers, and accord<strong>in</strong>glyhead the \adjective phrase" (DegP). This provides two dist<strong>in</strong>ct specierpositions <strong>in</strong> the adjective phrase, <strong>in</strong> addition to the position of the degreeword, and I argue that, as <strong>in</strong> the noun phrase, all positions are exploited.More generally, I argue that there are two major dichotomies of syntacticcategories: functional elements [+F] vs. thematic elements [-F], andnom<strong>in</strong>al elements [+N] vs. verbal elements [-N]. I havegiven lengthycharacterizationsof the dist<strong>in</strong>ction between functional and thematic elements themost important structural dierences are that functional elements do notpossess a dist<strong>in</strong>ct <strong>in</strong>dex from that of their complement, and that functionalelementpositions are sites for AGR, hence functional categories, but notthematic categories, freely take overt subjects.<strong>The</strong> functional/thematic and nom<strong>in</strong>al/verbal dichotomies are extremelyrobust, much more so than the alleged dichotomy between [+V] elements(V,A) and [-V] elements (N,P). For this reason, I challenge the traditionalfour \major categories" (N,V,A,P) also because the notional category \adjective"does not correspond to a s<strong>in</strong>gle category with a stable syntacticcharacterization, but rather to two dist<strong>in</strong>ct categories, one a subcategoryof verbs, the other a subcategory of nouns (the latter be<strong>in</strong>g predom<strong>in</strong>ate <strong>in</strong><strong>English</strong>).My discussion of the feature composition of syntactic categories is spreadthroughout the thesis. I would like to sum up here. I recognize (at least)ve features: F, N, Adj, Q, C. F and N are the major features.Adj dist<strong>in</strong>guishes nouns from (nom<strong>in</strong>al-type) adjectives presumably weshould also use it to dist<strong>in</strong>guish verbs from verbal-type adjectives. 107 [+C]107 Another possibility is to dist<strong>in</strong>guish nouns and nom<strong>in</strong>al-type adjectives by a feature


4. CONCLUSION 225dist<strong>in</strong>guishes \<strong>in</strong>herently Case-marked" elements: i.e., adverbs, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g\bare-NP" adverbs, bare-adjective adverbs, and adverbs <strong>in</strong> -ly. It is relevantonly for [-F,+N] categories. Q dist<strong>in</strong>guishes quanticational anddescriptive adjectives. It is relevant only for [-F,+N,+Adj] categories.<strong>The</strong> complete set of dist<strong>in</strong>ctions for the features F, N, and Adj isthe follow<strong>in</strong>g:(426) -Adj +Adj-N +N -N +N-F V,P N | A,Q,Adv+F I,C D,K | DegIt is not clear where P belongs. Perhaps languages dier as to whetherP is [-N] or [+N] (I am th<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g particularly of languages like Mayan whereP's are very similar to nouns).It is not clear what feature dist<strong>in</strong>guishes I from C and D from K, but,presumably, it is the same feature <strong>in</strong> both cases.Possibly, there are [-F,-N,+Adj] elements <strong>in</strong> other languages: i.e., verbaltypeadjectives. It is not clear that there are [+F,-N,+Adj] elements <strong>in</strong> anylanguage.To repeat, the central claim embodied <strong>in</strong> the distribution of categories(426) is that there are two major dichotomies, functional vs. thematicelements and nom<strong>in</strong>al vs. verbal elements, and that functional elementsoccupy a uniform structural position <strong>in</strong> both nom<strong>in</strong>al and verbal systems.<strong>The</strong> thrust of the present work is that the nom<strong>in</strong>al system is not defective,but possesses a functional element D, on a par with the functional elementsI and C of the verbal system.Aux, which wewould also use to dist<strong>in</strong>guish verbs and auxiliaries. I have not takenthat position here, because I have claimed that only prenom<strong>in</strong>al adjectives pattern withauxiliaries.


226 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERS


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232 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERSLieber R. (1983) \Argument L<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g and Compounds <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>", L<strong>in</strong>guisticInquiry 14:251-285.Lobeck A. (1985) Syntactic Constra<strong>in</strong>ts on VP Ellipsis, Doctoral dissertation,University ofWash<strong>in</strong>gton.Marantz A. (1984) On the Nature ofGrammatical Relations, L<strong>in</strong>guisticInquiry Monograph No. 10, MIT Press, Cambridge MA.Mak<strong>in</strong>o S. (1968) Some <strong>Aspect</strong>s of Japanese Nom<strong>in</strong>alizations, Tokai UniversityPress, Tokyo.Milner J.-C. (1982) \Les genitifs adnom<strong>in</strong>aux en francais", <strong>in</strong> Ordres etraisons de langue, Editions du Seuil, Paris.Montague R. (1974) Formal Philosophy: Selected Papers of Richard Montague,R.H. Thomason, ed., Yale University Press, New Haven CT.Napoli D.J. (1985) \Verb phrase deletion <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>: a base-generated analysis",J. L<strong>in</strong>guistics 21:281-319.Perlmutter D. (1970) \On the Article <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>", <strong>in</strong> M. Bierwisch & K.E.Heidolph, eds., Progress <strong>in</strong> L<strong>in</strong>guistics, Mouton, <strong>The</strong> Hague.Pesetsky D. (1982) Paths and Categories, Doctoral dissertation, MIT, Cambridge,MA.Pesetsky D. (1985) \Morphology and Logical Form", L<strong>in</strong>guistic Inquiry16.2.Plann S. (1981) \<strong>The</strong> Two el + <strong>in</strong>nitive Constructions <strong>in</strong> Spanish", L<strong>in</strong>guisticAnalysis 7.3.Postal P.M. (1966) \On So-Called `Pronouns' <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>", <strong>in</strong> D. Reibel &S. Schane, eds. (1969) Modern Studies <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>, Prentice-Hall,Englewood Clis, NJ.Postal P.M. (1974) On Rais<strong>in</strong>g, MIT Press, Cambridge MA.Poutsma H. (1923) <strong>The</strong> Innitive, the Gerund and the Participles of the<strong>English</strong> Verb, P. Noordho, Gron<strong>in</strong>gen.Quirk R., S. Greenbaum, G. Leech,&J.Svartvik (1985) AComprehensiveGrammar of the <strong>English</strong> Language, Longman, New York.Rappaport M. (1982a) \On the Nature of Derived Nom<strong>in</strong>als", ms., MIT,Cambridge MA.Rappaport M. (1982b) \Derived Nom<strong>in</strong>als and the <strong>The</strong>ory of Lexical Categories",ms., MIT, Cambridge MA.Reed I. et al. (1977) Yup'ik Eskimo Grammar, University of Alaska.


4. CONCLUSION 233Re<strong>in</strong>hart T. (1978) \Syntactic Doma<strong>in</strong>s for Semantic Rules", <strong>in</strong> F. Guenthner& S.J. Schmidt, eds., Formal Semantics and Pragmatics forNatural Languages, Reidel, Dordrecht, Holland.Reuland E. (1983) \Govern<strong>in</strong>g -<strong>in</strong>g", L<strong>in</strong>guistic Inquiry 14.1.Reuland E. (1985) \A Feature System for the Set of Categorial Heads",ms., Rijksuniversiteit Gron<strong>in</strong>gen.Ritter E. (1986) \Genitive NPs <strong>in</strong> Hebrew: A Functor Analysis", GeneralsPaper, MIT, Cambridge MA.Ritter E. & A. Szabolcsi (1985) \Let's Take the That-t Eect Seriously",ms., MIT.Roeper T. (1984) \Implicit Arguments and the Projection Pr<strong>in</strong>ciple", ms.,University of Massachusetts, Amherst MA.Rosenbaum P. (1967) <strong>The</strong> Grammar of <strong>English</strong> Predicate Complement Constructions,<strong>The</strong> MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.Ross J. (1967) Constra<strong>in</strong>ts on Variables <strong>in</strong> Syntax, Doctoral dissertation,MIT, Cambridge MA.Ross J. (1973) \<strong>Noun</strong><strong>in</strong>ess", <strong>in</strong> O. Fujimura, ed., Three Dimensions of L<strong>in</strong>guistic<strong>The</strong>ory, TEC Company, Tokyo, Japan.Rothste<strong>in</strong> S. (1983) <strong>The</strong> Syntactic Forms of Predication, Doctoral dissertation,MIT, Cambridge MA.Schachter P. (1976) \A Nontransformational Account of Gerundive Nom<strong>in</strong>als<strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>", L<strong>in</strong>guistic Inquiry 7.2.Selkirk E. (1970) \On the Determ<strong>in</strong>er Systems of <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong> and Adjective<strong>Phrase</strong>", ms., MIT, Cambridge MA.Selkirk E. (1977) \Some Remarks on <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong> Structure", <strong>in</strong> P. Culicover,T. Wasow, & A. Akmajian, eds., Formal Syntax, AcademicPress, New York.Selkirk, E. (1982) <strong>The</strong> Syntax of Words, L<strong>in</strong>guistic Inquiry Monograph No.7, MIT Press, Cambridge MA.Siegel D. (1974) Topics <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong> Morphology, Doctoral dissertation, MIT,Cambridge MA.Smith C. (1961) \A class of complex modiers <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>", Language 37.3,pp.342-365.Sportiche D. (1983) Structural Invariance and Symmetry <strong>in</strong> Syntax, Doctoraldissertation, MIT, Cambridge MA.Sproat R. (1985) On Deriv<strong>in</strong>g the Lexicon, doctoral dissertation, MIT,Cambridge MA.


234 CHAPTER 4. LEXICAL DETERMINERSStockwell R., P. Schachter, & B. Partee (1973) <strong>The</strong> Major Syntactic Structuresof <strong>English</strong>, Holt, R<strong>in</strong>ehart, and W<strong>in</strong>ston, NY.Stowell T. (1981) Orig<strong>in</strong>s of <strong>Phrase</strong> Structure, Doctoral dissertation, MIT,Cambridge MA.Stowell T. (1983) \Subjects Across Categories", <strong>The</strong> L<strong>in</strong>guistic Review2:285-312.Szabolcsi A. (1981) \<strong>The</strong> Possessive Construction <strong>in</strong> Hungarian: A CongurationalCategory <strong>in</strong> a Non-Congurational Language", Acta L<strong>in</strong>guisticaAcademiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 31:261-289.Szabolcsi A. (1984) \<strong>The</strong> possessor that ran away from home", <strong>The</strong> L<strong>in</strong>guisticReview 3:89-102.Szabolcsi A. (1987) \Functional Categories <strong>in</strong> the <strong>Noun</strong> <strong>Phrase</strong>," to appear<strong>in</strong> Kenesei, ed., Approaches to Hungarian, Vol.2, Szeged.Thompson S. (1973) \On Subjectless Gerunds <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>", Foundations ofLanguage 9:374-383.Underhill R. (1976) Turkish Grammar, MIT Press, Cambridge MA.Vendler Z. (1967) Adjectives and Nom<strong>in</strong>alizations, Mouton, <strong>The</strong> Hague.Vergnaud J.-R. (1974) French Relative Clauses, Doctoral dissertation, MIT,Cambridge MA.Wasow T. & T. Roeper (1972) \On the Subject of Gerunds", Foundationsof Language 8.1.Wik B. (1973) <strong>English</strong> Nom<strong>in</strong>alizations <strong>in</strong> -<strong>in</strong>g,ActaUniversitatis Upsaliensis,Studia Anglistica Upsaliensia #12, Uppsala.Williams E. (1975) \Small Clauses <strong>in</strong> <strong>English</strong>", <strong>in</strong> J. Kimball, ed., Syntaxand Semantics, Vol. 4, Academic Press, NY.Williams E. (1980) \Predication", L<strong>in</strong>guistic Inquiry 11:203-238.Williams E. (1982) \<strong>The</strong> NP-Cycle", L<strong>in</strong>guistic Inquiry 13.2.Williams E. (1985) \PRO and Subject of NP", Natural Language and L<strong>in</strong>guistic<strong>The</strong>ory 3:297-315.W<strong>in</strong>ston P. (1984) Articial Intelligence, Addison-Wesley, Read<strong>in</strong>g MA.Young R. & W. Morgan (1971) <strong>The</strong> Navaho Language, Deseret Book Company.

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