Determiner Phrase

Je présenterai les différents arguments qui ont conduit à une remise en cause, entre 1985 et 1987, de la conception traditionnelle du déterminant comme spécificateur du groupe nominal. Le déterminant est depuis lors considéré comme la tête, de nature fonctionnelle, du groupe nominal. Ce modèle permet de décrire plus adéquatement les phénomènes d’accord interne au groupe nominal dans certaines langues comme le turc ou le hongrois, et permet également de lever de nombreuses difficultés inhérentes à l’analyse des constructions gérondives de l’anglais. Le modèle syntagmatique du groupe nominal apparaît désormais comme étroitement parallèle à celui de la proposition, le déterminant étant l’analogue de l’Inflexion temporelle au sein de la proposition.
Je verrai ensuite comment cette analyse à présent bien établie se trouve confortée par l’étude des déplacements des entités syntaxiques internes au groupe nominal ; je retiendrai particulièrement les travaux de Giuseppe Longobardi sur les différences paramétriques entre l’anglais et l’italien, ainsi que les propositions de Richard Kayne sur le génitif postnominal et les relatives déterminatives.
Ces nouvelles théories du groupe nominal, associées aux principes d’économie générale des dérivations syntaxiques, développés par le Programme minimaliste depuis 1995, permettent de simplifier et de rationaliser les raisonnements combinatoires nécessaires à la compréhension de deux contraintes remarquables sur le génitif.

In this talk the author discusses the Extended Projection Principle in (a) clauses with overt subjects, (b) clauses with pro subjects and (c) clauses with fronted locatives in Serbian language from the perspective of Minimalist Program and Distributed Morphology. The aim of this paper is to (i) determine the main means of satisfying EPP in Serbian, (ii) place Serbian language in Alexiadou and Anagnostopoulou 1998 typology, (iii) place Serbian language in Fukuda et al. 2016 typology, (iv) present new data that supports an idea that Serbian has TP and DP projections. Furthermore, the author argues that there is a possibility that full pro-drop languages are not a coherent group, as it has been observed for partial pro-drop languages (Alexiadou and Carvalho 2017). Further partition is caused by word-orders, both dominant and possible.
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In this paper, I present the description of the nominal phrase in the latest academic grammar of the Romanian language. Also, I show what the main sources of inspiration for the proposed structure are, and I address certain problems that were not discussed in Gramatica de Baza, but which are analyzable in the theoretical framework put forth.

the paper claims that "determiner" is a spurious terms and defines diagnostics to distinguish between articles (concord marker that can be free or bound morphemes) determiners in SpecDP, quantity adjectives (in high adjectival position) and quantifiers, heading a QP and selecting a DP, the highest nominal projection.

The present study examines the development of determiner phrases (DPs) by 22-32 months old simultaneously bilingual (2L1) children in French and Swedish. It aims to observe the relation between phonological and morphosyntactic aspects during DP acquisition of the target languages and compare it with existing descriptions on monolingual (L1) children. The latest research on children’s morphosyntactic acquisition suggests it is a bootstrapping process, where the first lexical productions are phonologically constrained and function words omitted due to lack of prosodic saliency.
It is debated whether children’s first lexical units follow a universal prosodic template or the prosody of the target language. Data from 2L1 children in languages of different phonological structure might provide information, where a lexical template following phonological features of the target language would mean different lexical units for each language (trochaic structure in Swedish, accentual arc structure in French). The results indicate a similar phonological development as described for L1 children, except for code switching by 2L1 children. The DPs with a syllable length exceeding the prosodic competence of the child are truncated and the determiner omitted, where truncation patterns seem to rely on phonological properties of the target language, not on a universal prosodic unit.

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La présente étude observe le développement de phrases déterminatives (DP) d’enfants bilingues simultanés (2L1) en français-suédois, âgés de 22-32 mois, pour en étudier la relation entre les aspects phonologiques et morphosyntaxiques ainsi que de le comparer aux descriptions existantes sur le même parcours d’enfants monolingues (L1). Selon la recherche contemporaine, l’acquisition morpho-syntaxique précoce serait un processus de bootstrapping, où les premières unités lexicales sont phonologiquement contraintes et les mots fonctionnels omis, faute d’être prosodiquement proéminents.
Le fait que ces unités suivent soit un pied prosodique universel, soit un modèle lexical selon la prosodie des langues cibles, est amplement discuté et l’observation d’enfants 2L1 en langues de structures phonologiquement différentes pourrait apporter des réponses. Le modèle lexical suivant la prosodie des langues cibles donnerait des unités différentes pour chaque langue (structure trochaîque en suédois, structure en arc accentuel en français). Les résultats indiquent un développement similaire à celui des monolingues, exceptée l’alternance codique chez les enfants 2L1. Lorsque la longueur syllabique du DP excède celle de la compétence prosodique de l’enfant, le DP est tronqué et le déterminant omis. Il semble que les troncations respectent la structure phonologique de la langue cible, non pas celle d’un pied universel.

The DP-hypothesis as proposed in Abney (1987) is nowadays generally taken for granted in formal syntactic work. In this paper I will show that a surprising number of arguments that have been provided in the literature are not conclusive. Many rest on purely theory-internal premises and thus lose their force given the developments within syntactic theory over the last decades. Others are largely based on presumed parallelisms between the noun phrase and the clause. In practically all cases a reasonable reanalysis within the NP-hypothesis is possible. Similarly, I will show that the few arguments in favor of the NP-hypothesis that there can be found are also inconclusive. Instead I will establish solid criteria for headedness and explore their implications for the NP vs. DP debate. I will show that the fact that the features of the head are present on the maximal projection makes testable predictions when the noun interacts with noun phrase external heads. I will first show that data from selection favor the DP-hypothesis (contrary to previous claims) since one needs to be able to syntactically select both DPs and bare nouns/NPs. Second, I will present a new argument in favor of the DP-hypothesis based on data from hybrid agreement in Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian. The phenomenon crucially requires D-elements to be closer to agreement targets outside the noun phrase than the noun itself. This follows if DP dominates NP but not vice versa.

This paper is concerned with restrictions on Left-Branch Extraction (LBE) in
Bulgarian and Macedonian, the only two Slavic languages with articles. The
data indicate that the availability of LBE is related to the number of modiers,
and thus require a revision of the generalisation that all languages with articles
disallow LBE. Following Martinović (2019), Calabrese & Pescarini (2014), a
solution based on the order of operations is proposed, connecting the availability
of LBE to the idea that projections can be removed via syntactic operations
such as Exfoliation (Pesetsky 2019). The application of Exfoliation depends
on the relative timing of article placement, which in turn is performed via a (revised)
post-syntactic operation of Generalised Lowering (Embick & Noyer 2001).
Exfoliation and subsequently LBE are fed by an early application of Lowering,
assumed to be able to interleave narrow syntax (Martinović 2019), but if applied
late, Lowering counter-feeds these two operations.

When most patients visit physicians in a clinic or a hospital, they are asked about their medical history and related medical tests' results which might not exist or might simply have been lost over time. In emergency situations, many patients suffer or sadly die because of lack of pertinent medical information. Patient's Health information (PHI) saved by Electronic Medical Record (EMR) could be accessible only by a hospital using their EMR system. Furthermore, Personal Health Record (PHR) information cannot be solely relied on since it is controlled solely by patients. This paper introduces a novel framework for accessing, sharing, and controlling the medical records for patients and their physicians globally, while patients' PHI are securely stored and their privacy is taken into consideration. Based on the framework, a proof of concept prototype is implemented. Preliminary performance evaluation results indicate the validity and viability of the proposed framework.

Four types of Determiner Phases (DP) in Spanish have arguments in the form of Prepositional Phrases (PP) introduced by de ('of'). Picture (foto 'photo') and deverbal nouns (descripción 'description') project a more complex argument structure than relational (primo 'cousin') and deadjectival nouns (belleza 'beauty'). The possessivization test implies that the most prominent de-PP of each DP type can be possessivized depending on different thematic hierarchies. This study analyzes whether comparative complexity affects convergence on possessivization, with earlier convergence predicted for comparatively simpler relational and deadjectival DPs. To test this prediction, this study examines order of DP acquisition in 52 L1 Spanish-speaking children (6-year-olds (N = 14), 7-year-olds (N = 21), 8-year-olds (N = 17)). A Graded Grammaticality Judgment Task (GGJT) containing 32 items divided across four conditions (relational, deadjectival, picture, deverbal) with four contexts each was administered. Results reveal developmental improvement and partial support for the prediction in that relational DPs are converged upon first, while deverbal DPs are converged upon last. This study's import is the novel examination of argument structure across four DP types in Spanish-speaking children with the aim of observing and explaining the developmental path.

Although it lacks grammaticalized categories of definite and indefinite articles and its " bare " nouns are (usually) ambiguous between a definite and indefinite interpretation, Serbo-Croatian has appropriate lexical items for marking discourse-old and discourse-new nominal referents. I demonstrate that there are contexts in which use of these discourse markers is obligatory for obtaining the intended reading, as the " bare " nominal phrase would unambiguously be interpreted as definite or indefinite, depending on the context. More importantly, when present, these discourse markers block left branch and adjunct extractions from the rest of the NP, indicating that a determiner phrase might be projected, even in an article less language.

The paper discusses the diachronic syntactic specialization of Romanian demonstratives according to the morphophonological weak/strong distinction, and the grammaticalization of the article CEL, specific to Romanian from a Romance perspective. It is shown that the reanalysis of the aphaeretic form of the distal demonstrative as the article CEL, through a grammaticalization process that regularly took place in the emergence of Romance determiners, strongly correlates with the diachronic specialization of Romanian demonstratives and with other syntactic changes taking place across-the-board in the Romanian DP.

This is in no way a polished piece of work, but rather a starting point in many respects.
A short description: the first squib shows the difference in interpretation between conjunctions of Russian that-phrases, depending on whether conjunction is placed above or below "that"; the second squib points out two problems for one particular (non-central) proposal in Champollion's recent paper; the third squib points out two differences between English and Russian no-DPs.
This took about four days of spare time to accomplish (not counting the initial paradigm I had and some other notes). Also, a hint for my Russian readers: «Какая чушь, зато хоть тема безопасная».

The modification of the English noun phrase by deverbal adjectives has been an issue which has been discussed by many linguists. The majority of them have focused on the position (pre- or post-nominal) and the interpretation of the deverbal adjectives ending in -able or -ible. Very few linguists have investigated another category of modifiers, that of past participles. This raises the question how past participles behave as modifiers in the English noun phrase. The research focuses on which past participles can appear in prenominal (i.e. attributive) or postnominal position or both, and which criteria determine the position they occur in. This thesis presents a corpus-based study in which the positions of the past participles of 74 verbs are examined. In the study, the article and the element following the noun phrase (i.e. verb or preposition) are also investigated. The result of the study shows that the type of the verb (viz. transitive or intransitive) which the past participle d...

Two issues little discussed in the generative literature are the internal structure of pronouns and what it is in Syntax that triggers pronominal reference. This monograph treats these two topics in detail and investigates whether pronominal (strong, weak and clitic pronouns) and related elliptical expressions can be given a unified syntactic representation. The answer, derived from a wealth of cross-linguistic evidence, is largely affirmative: pronominals include a semantically empty noun as part of their internal structure. The case of null subjects in ‘pro-drop’ languages is also examined and it is argued that they are not empty pronominal categories but, rather, the reflex of a ‘verbal determiner’. Finally, using the internal structure of pronouns as a sort of ‘litmus paper’, the book explores the relationship between functional and lexical heads as well as the notions of selection and licensing in syntax, and offers new insights into the categorial status of functional categories.

The paper discusses the cases of binding of full DPs by focused antecedents (Roeper 2006) in Russian, where association of focus works sometimes similar to, and sometimes different from, English. The applicability to Russian of the recent account due to Bassi (2019) is critically evaluated.

Out of context, a sequence of Italian such as 'dei professori' (of.the teachers) is ambiguous. It can: (a) mean 'some teachers' (e.g. 'Dei professori intervennero' (Some teachers intervened)); (b) carry the value of a Saxon genitive [e.g. 'i libri dei professori' (the teachers' books); (c) be a genitive, as in 'Parla dei professori' (He's speaking about the teachers)]. The part of speech to which 'dei' belongs cannot be identified at a glance: 'dei' could be a partitive article in a NOUN phrase or a preposition in a PREPOSITIONAL phrase. This key difference raises a problem in the area of Word Sense Disambiguation. Despite its relevance for NLP, this case of homonymy has so far been disregarded in the literature. The paper distinguishes the functions of function morphemes such as 'dei' and proposes an algorithm that can automatically discriminate between the two uses mentioned above, but also identify others that make the picture more complex.

In this squib, I provide evidence of a novel type in favor of the existence of the DP in previously undiscussed articleless languages: I show that a comitative preposition in the Ossetic languages cannot attach to nominal expressions that would be analyzed as DPs in better studied languages. On the other hand, nominal expressions it can attach to are of the kinds that would be analyzed as bare NumPs.

By now, the choice between pronominal and reflexive bound possessives in Russian has been subject to prolonged investigation, but some aspects of the phenomenon have not been scrutinised by quantitative methods or given an interpretation in terms of a formal model of syntax and semantics. The present paper deals with pronominal possessives situated in direct object noun phrases and bound by a 1st- or 2nd-person pronominal subject (including zero subjects in imperatives). We focus on the factors that have to do with the availability of the collective interpretation of the verb phrase and of the possession relation itself.
Using data from the Russian National Corpus and from the Araneum Russicum Maximum web corpus, we demonstrate a significant effect of the subject number on the choice of the possessive pronoun. To investigate the effects of collectivity, we designed a questionnaire, which showed that with plural  the preference for pronominal possessives over the reflexive possessive increases as the collective interpretation becomes more salient. Moreover, both types of possessives are degraded to a certain extent within singular (but not singulare tantum) object NPs when the collective reading is unavailable. We suggest that the observed distribution can be explained if we assume that (a) the cardinality of the possessor is an interpretable feature of Russian possessives and is therefore able to cause interpretational conflicts, and (b) the possessive layer of the nominal domain precludes an object to be re-analysed as part of the predicate, which is required for a distributive interpretation.

In relevance-theoretic pragmatics, lexical adjustment, or ad hoc-concept construction, is considered a case of free pragmatic enrichment. It is hence included within the group of non-linguistically mandated processes that are automatically carried out during comprehension. Its output is an inferentially-specified representation of the conceptual content encoded, or activated, by open-class words like nouns, adjectives, verbs or adverbs. Ad hoc-concept construction is a necessary step to obtain a fully propositional, truth-evaluable form that captures in a more precise manner the portion of meaning that the speaker communicates explicitly. However, this paper argues that this lexical pragmatic process needs not always be described as completely exempt from linguistic mandate: it may sometimes be enacted and steered by a series of linguistic elements. These fall within two categories: (i) the evaluative morphemes that some lexical items may receive in some languages, and (ii) lexical and phrasal items adjacent to content words. These elements would finetune the representations arising from content words in terms of more specific, context-dependent features or shades. Additionally, they could include in such representations information about the speaker’s attitude towards, or stance about, what the speakers refer to. Therefore, that information needs not always be derived as implicatures.

This paper addresses two related problems. The major empirical problem concerns the difference between two pronominal forms found in German: personal pronouns and so-called d-pronouns, which are also used as relative pronouns. The major theoretical question concerns the nature of relative pronouns in general. I will argue that d-pronouns are definite determiners, i.e., full Determiner Phrases (DPs) containing an empty NP whereas personal pronouns are merely the spell out of phi features (AgrD) not containing an NP-projection. This will allow us to account for the distributional differences between the two forms. In addition, I will argue for a restriction on Operator-variable chains that will derive the fact that only d-words but not personal pronouns can be used as relative pronouns in a language that makes use of the A′-movement strategy for relativization. It will also follow that relativization without A′-movement is possible with either a personal pronoun or a gap occupying the relativized position.