The English Noun Phrase in its Sentential Aspect - Vinartus

1. GENERAL SIMILARITIES 25in (19a) and the sentential subject of (19b), it was necessary to derivethem both from the same simplex sentence, viz., Nero destroyed Rome.The relevant part of the interpretation of simplex sentences is representedin the current theory by -grids by assuming 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 binding. The basic binding facts are the same in 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 in 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 talking.d. *John's criticism of Bill j after PRO j talking.(Both (c) and (d) are ne where John controls PRO.)When Chomsky introduced a non-transformational account of the thematicsimilarities between sentence and noun phrase (Chomsky 1970), healso considered the fact that a structural subject-object distinction wasnecessary in the noun phrase as well as sentence, and introduced the nodeN|and X-theory|precisely for this reason. If we dene c-command as follows: c-commands if neither dominates the other, and the rst (branching)node dominating dominates then with the introduction of N-bar,the noun phrase and sentence are similar enough in structure to accountfor the facts of (20) and (21). The \subjects" of both noun phrase andsentence assymetrically c-command the objects, allowing us to capture theassymetry in binding and control facts.A point onwhichsentence and noun phrase remain dissimilar, underChomsky's account|which has become the standard account |is Case-