The English Noun Phrase in its Sentential Aspect - Vinartus

38 CHAPTER 2. NOUN PHRASE AND SENTENCE3 The DP-Analysis3.1 Concepts and TerminologyIhave presented the essence of the position which I will defend in the restof this thesis: that the noun phrase is headed by an In-like category inmany languages, including English, and probably universally. Iwould liketo spell out my hypothesis carefully here, and dene my terminology.3.1.a\Inectional" ElementsFirst, I have spoken of an \In-like" node, or an \Inectional element" inthe noun phrase, without dening precisely what I mean. I consider thenode In to be typical of a class of elements, that I have elsewhere calledfunctional elements,incontrast with thematic elements. 9 They are typicallycalled \non-lexical categories" I resist this designation because I assumethat complementizers and modals, etc., have lexical entries like any otherword. The two uncontroversial functional elements are Complementizerand Inection.The primary property of functional elements is this: they select a uniquecomplement, which is not plausibly either an argument or an adjunct ofthe functional element. C selects IP, and I selects VP. CandIdonottake typical arguments (noun phrases, prepositional phrases, subordinateclauses), not even as an option. C and I do not take multiple arguments,but only one IP, oroneVP, respectively. And semantically, at least onan intuitive level, C and I contrast with N, V, A, etc., in that they donot describe a distinct object from that described by their complement.In That John hit the ball, for instance, the VP hit the ball (intuitively)describes an act of hitting, the IP John hit the ball describes an act ofhitting, and the CP that John hit the ball also describes an act of hitting.This intuition is a major motivation for the continuing debate over whetherV is not actually the head of the sentence. In the \passing on" of thedescriptive content of their complements, functional heads contrast withthematic heads. The noun phrase the ball describes a ball when that nounphrase is the complement ofaverb, as in hit the ball, the VP emphaticallydoes not describe a ball, but an action in this case, an act of hitting.We see, then, that the relation between a functional element and itscomplement, and the relation between a thematic element and its complement,contrast starkly. I assume that there are syntactic relations betweenall heads and their complements or adjuncts, by which those complementsand adjuncts are licensed| a minimal condition on a well-formed syntactic9 Abney (1986).