The English Noun Phrase in its Sentential Aspect - Vinartus

1. A PUZZLE AND ITS SOLUTION 17position i.e., that the structure of noun phrase and sentence are parallel inHungarian:(9) Sentence: I'' Noun Phrase: X''/ \ / \SUBJ I' POSSR X'/ \ / \I V'' X N'(')/ \ / \I AGR X AGRIt is not clear what the category X is, beyond saying it is a nominal In-ectional category. We cannot say it is In, as we would then be unableto distinguish Sentence and Noun Phrase as syntactic categories but it ismore like In than anything 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 binding theory, predication, and-theory with respect to the possessor? What consequences does it havefor extraction from the noun phrase?Instead of facing this phalanx of questions, it may seem preferable tosuppose that AGR in the noun phrase does not appear in the same sort ofposition, structurally, asAGR in the sentence. An alternative is that AGRis simply adjoined to N 0 :(10) NP/ \POSSR N'|N/ \N AGRBut there are questions that this hypothesis raises as well. Why doesAGR coindex only with the possessor, and never with e.g. an object nounphrase? Why doAGR in the noun phrase and in the sentence occupydierent positions? This latter question is made especially pointed by thefact that the form of sentential AGR and nominal AGR are frequently verysimilar. In Central Alaskan Yup'ik, for example, they are identical: 11 Yup'ik data drawn from Reed et al. (1977).