The Internal Structure of Noun Phrases in the Scandinavian Languages a Comparative Study Delsing, Lars-Olof
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The Internal Structure of Noun Phrases in the Scandinavian Languages A Comparative Study Delsing, Lars-Olof 1993 Document Version: Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Delsing, L-O. (1993). The Internal Structure of Noun Phrases in the Scandinavian Languages: A Comparative Study. Institutionen för nordiska språk, Lunds universitet. 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LUND UNIVERSITY PO Box 117 221 00 Lund +46 46-222 00 00 Tun INrnnN¡¡ SrnucruRn oF NouN Pnnasns IN THE Sc.lNnrNAvrAN Lr¡¡cuacBs A ConrpaRATrvE Sruoy Lars-Olof Delsing Departrnent of Scandinavian Languages University of Lund 1993 O Lars-Olof Delsing 1993 ISBN 91-628-0988-1 Printed in Sweden Team Offset Malmri, 1993 Acknowledgements Six years ago, I asked my supervisor, Christer Platzack, if he could think of a sub¡ect within generative grammar, which would be suit- able for a paper that should be done in five weeks. He suggested that I write about the lack of adjectival agreement in certain generic constructions in Swedish. From the beginning it became clear that the structure of the noun phrase could have something to do with the matter, so I started to study noun phrase structure. The five weeks have long passed. All the time Christer has been guiding and encouraging me. I thank him for all his comments, suggeitions and criticism over these years. Christer has always been a good listener and a careful reviewer, who has always had time to discuss noun phrases. Next, I thank my good friend and colleague at Sölvegatan, Cecilia Falk. Sharing an office with Cecilia has made linguistics quite a lot of fun. During the constant coffee and smoke break that has been going on for the last four years at the south wing of Sölvegatan, Cecilia has been a good discussion partner and a critical reviewer of my work. I also thank those of my colleagues who have read all or parts of this book in draft: Lena Ekberg, Gunlög Josefsson, Lynn Santel- mann and Ulf Teleman. Gunlög and Lena have been insightful and encouraging discussion partners at Sölvegatan. I am especially in- debted to Lynn who has also corrected my English. If my English deteriorates in parts of this work, this is probably due to the fact that Lynn left Sweden in the middle of the summer, before the final re- visions. Finally, I am grateful that Ulf, with his great knowledge of noun phrases, has taken time to comment on my work. I also thank all my informants on all the Scandinavian lan- guages and on English and German. I am especially thankful to Hall- ãór-Ármann Sigurðsson, Reykjavík, for his assistance with the lce- landic data, and Hans Jul Nielsen, Copenhagen, for helping me out with Western Jutlandic. This summer has not at all been an as I expected. I have often missed Ribban, Svarttjärn and other places where I like to go. While I have been occupied with the dissertation, my friends'and family, not least my parents, have assisted me in all imaginable ways. Many thanks! Malmö, August 1993 Lars-Olof Delsing CoNrBNrs nv Bnrpr 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. The Scandinavian Languages l.2.T}:te Scandinavian Noun Phrase 1.3. The Principles-and-Parameters-Based Theory 1.4. The Organisation of this Work 2. THE FUNCTION OF DETERMINERS 2.1. Predicatives 2.2.Yocatives and Other Isolated Noun Phrases 2.3. Uncountables 2.4. Proper Names 2.5. Various Bare Nouns 2.6. Types of Determiners 2.7. Conclusions 3. BASIC NOUN PHRASE STRUCTURE 3.1. Determiner Phrases (DPs) 3.2. Attributive Adjectives 3.3. Degree Phrases (DegPs) 3.4. Quantifiers 3.5. Consequences 3.6. Conclusions 4. DEFINITE AND INDEFINITE ARTICLES 4.1. Single and Double Definiteness 4.2. Adjectival Double Definiteness 4.3. Demonstrative Constructions 4.4. Postadjectival Indefinite Articles 4.5. Conclusions 5. POSSESSION 5. 1. Possessive Constructions 5.2. Previous Analyses 5.3. The Proposed Analysis 5.4. Conclusions 6. QUANTIFICATION 6. 1. Pronominal Quantification 6.2. Phrasal Quantification 6.3. Pronominal and Phrasal Quantification 6.4. Conclusions 7. CONCLUSIONS TABLE OF CONTENTS l.INTRODUCTION I 1.1. The Scandinavian Languages ,, 1.2. The Scandinavian Nouñ Phrase 4 I .2.1 . Gender Svstem 5 1.2.2. Morphológical Case 7 1.2.3. Agreement within the Noun Phrase 8 1 .2.4. Adiectival Momholo ev 9 1.3. The Printiples-an¿-Éararñéters-Based Theory 10 1.3.1. Levels of Representation 10 1.3.2. X-bar-Theory t2 1.3.3. Theta-Theory l7 1.3.4. Case-Theory 19 1.3.5. Bindine Theory 22 1.3.6. Moverñent 23 1.4. The Organisation of this Work 24 2. THE FI.]NCTION OF DETERMINERS 26 2.1. Predicatives 31 2.1.1. Predicatives with Indefinite Articles 31 2.1.2. Predicatives with Other Determiners st 2.2.Yocatives and Other Isolated Noun Phrases 38 2.3. Uncountables 40 2.3.1. Standard Swedish 42 2.3.2. Northern Swedish 49 2.3.3. Conclusions 52 2.4. Proper Names 53 2.5. Various Bare äouns 2.5.1. Subiects and Obiects 51 2.5.2. CorÄplernents of Preposirions 60 2.6. Types of D'etermlners 64 2.6.1. Arguments and Determiners 64 2.6.2. Tv oes of Articles 66 2.7. Conclusíons 68 3. BASIC NOUN PHRASE STRUCTURE 69 3.1. Determiner Phrases (DPs) 69 3.1.1. D-projections 10 - - 3.1.2. D-projections in the Scandinavian Languages 73 3.2. Attributive Ad.iectives 77 3.2.1. Phrasal Structure 82 3.2.2. Adiectival Agreemenr 83 3.2.3. Independentfy Used Adjectives 85 3.2.4. Recúrsion 88 3.2.5.Head Movement 90 3.2.6. Bindine 92 3.2.7. Conclu"sions 93 3.3. e Phrases (DegPs) 93 3.4. lrers 100 3.5. 105 3.5.r 105 3.5.2 r06 3.5.3. Functional Lexical Categories 108 3.6. Conclusions 111 4. DEFINITE AND INDEFINITE ARTICLES 113 4.1. Single and Double DefTniteness rl4 4.1.1. Danish 115 4.1.2. Swedish, Norwegian and Faroese 116 4.1.3. Icelandic 120 4.1.4. Western Jutlandic l2r 4.1.5. Northern Swedish 122 4.1.6. Summarv r23 4.2. Adiectival Double Definiteness 124 4.2i1. Previous Analyses 124 4.2.2. The Proposed Analysis t21 4.2.3. Articles with Proper Names 132 4.3. Demonstrative Constructions L34 4.3. 1. Demonstrative Double Definiteness 135 4.3.2. The Demonstrativ e de nna 137 4.4. Postad.iectival Indefinite Articles 138 4.4.1. Too bie a house 139 4 4.2. Doublí Indefiniteness 142 4.5. Conclusions 145 5. POSSESSION r47 5.1. Possessive Constructions 149 5 .1. Danish and Standard Swedish 152 5 .2. Northern Swedish 153 5 .3. Norwegian r54 5 .4. Faroese 155 5 .5. Icelandic t57 158 5.2. 160 5.3. 166 val rossesslves loð 5.3.2. Possessive Pronouns as Heads 170 5.3.3. Prenominal Genitival Possessives t7t 5.3.4. Pronominal Possessives t't3 5.3.5. Possessives with Personal Names 115 5.3.6. Typological Implications 179 5.3.7. Residual Problems 182 5.4. Conclusions 183 6. OUANTIFICATION 185 6-. l. Pronominal Quantification 187 6.1.1. Ouantifvins Pronouns 188 6. 1 .2. P-seudopartítive Pronominal Constructions r93 6.1.3. Partitivè Pronominal Constn¡ctions 195 6.2. Phrasal Quantification 200 6.2.1. Ouantifvine Nouns 203 6. 2.2. P-seudo¡íartitives w i th lndefi ni te Quanti fi ers 201 6.2.3. Conseauences 211 6.2.4. Countabilitv in Pseudopartitives 213 6.2.5. Pseudopartiiives with Definite Quantifiers 2t5 6.2,6. Genuinè Partitive Constructions 218 6.3. Pronominal and Phrasal Quantification 220 6.4. Conclusions 223 7. CONCLUSIONS 225 Anoendix: Scandinavian Morphology 229 Rèferences 23r General Index 239 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION This book is concerned with the intemal structure of the noun phrase in the Scandinavian languages. The work is comparative, and tries to present and discuss data from all the Scandinavian languages includ- ing some of the dialects. The analysis that I elaborate in this work is formulated within the principles-and-parameters-based framework. The noun phrase has not been investigated to any great extent in generative literature until quite recently (one exception for Scandi- navian is Teleman 1969). Earlier work concentrated on nominalisa- tion, where there are genitival attributes and adjectives that seem to be parallel to arguments and adverbs of the clause (e.g. Chomsky 1970). Other parts of the noun phrase have not been studied in any detail within the theory until the middle of the 80's.