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The English Noun Phrase in its Sentential Aspect - Vinartus

The English Noun Phrase in its Sentential Aspect - Vinartus

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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

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