The English Noun Phrase in its Sentential Aspect - Vinartus

36 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCEthe noun phrases in Turkish that can be pro-dropped are all and only thosewhose features are marked by either nominal or verbal AGR: i.e., subjectof the sentence, possessor, and object of certain postpositions. 8 Thoughother arguments can be dropped, they cannot be dropped freely, but onlyunder restrictive discourse conditions. Kornlt argues that pro-drop is notinvolved in such cases.Kornlt also shows that nominal AGR assigns genitive case. For example,the two aremutually dependent: a noun phrase cannot bear genitivecase unless it agrees with a nominal AGR, and if there is any overt nounphrase which agrees with a nominal 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 English-type gerunds. In fact, all subordinate clausesare gerundive. There are two types, known in the literature as \verbalnoun" and \nominalization". The verbal noun involves the ax -mE/-mEk the nominalization involves the ax -DIg (non-future) or -(y)EcEg(future). There is a dierence in meaning, which Underhill characterizesas \action" (verbal noun) vs. \fact" (nominalization). Their syntax isvirtually the same, though: the nominalizing morpheme is attached to theverb stem, after which nominal suxes| nominal AGR, case markers|canbe attached. The complements and adjuncts the nominalized verb takes areidentical to those which ittakes as a matrix verb, with the exception thatthe subject appears in genitive case, not nominative case. Examples:8 These 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".