The English Noun Phrase in its Sentential Aspect - Vinartus

1. A PUZZLE AND ITS SOLUTION 21of the noun phrase? and (2) If there is an inectional head of the nounphrase, is the determiner its lexical instantiation? 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 in fact Determiner = D.1.5 Sentence and Noun PhraseThe solution I have proposed is, in eect, to assign a more sentence-likestructure to the English noun phrase than is commonly assumed. This isattractive for conceptual reasons, in addition to the empirical advantages itprovides. Verb versus noun is the most fundamental opposition in grammar,and it is appealing 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 ingrammatical study. Sentence and noun phrase play a distinguished role inmany aspects of grammar: they were the two cyclic nodes, for instance, inearlier versions of transformational grammar they are also the two categorieswhich freelycontain subjects.On the other hand, there are very substantial dierences in noun-phraseand sentence structure, which cannot be ignored. A recurring theme of thethesis is noun-phrase/sentence similarities and dierences. I compare nounphrase/sentencestructure in a general way, briey, for completeness' sake.Iamchiey concerned, however, with a single sentential aspect of the nounphrase: the existence of an Inectional head of the noun phrase.Finally, 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-ing 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. The solution proposed for tting the pieces ofthe sentence together was to raise the status of a minor category, modal, tohead of the sentence, and to postulate an entirely abstract head in sentenceswhich lacked modals. I have simply imported this solution into the nounphrase, to solve the puzzle of the gerund.