The Sinitic Nominal Phrase Structure: A Minimalist Perspective
View / Open Files
Authors
Lin, Yi-An
Advisors
Willis, David
Date
2010-04-24Awarding Institution
University of Cambridge
Author Affiliation
Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages / Department of Linguistics
Qualification
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Language
English
Type
Thesis
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Lin, Y. (2010). The Sinitic Nominal Phrase Structure: A Minimalist Perspective (Doctoral thesis). https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.17167
Abstract
This dissertation is a comparative study of the morphosyntax of the constituents referred to as noun phrases in traditional grammar. In line with Abney’s (1987) Determiner Phrase (DP) Hypothesis, this study investigates the syntactic structures of Sinitic nominal phrases by means of a thorough study of lexical elements, such as numerals, classifiers, possessives, adjectives, and nouns, and functional elements, such as plural/collective markers, force particles, and modification markers. It is argued that the syntactic structure of the nominal phrase is universal regardless of the presence of lexical items which realise the heads of the functional projections. This study further proposes a unified account of the articulated structure of nominal phrases, as a full-fledged DP, to explain the syntactic phenomena in both classifier and non-classifier languages. More specifically, a Probe-Goal feature-valuing model is proposed to account for parametric variation among Sinitic and other languages within the framework of Chomsky’s (2000, 2001, 2004) Phase-based Minimalist Programme. Furthermore, given the assumption of the Split-DP Hypothesis, this study proposes that the DP in Sinitic languages is also not a unitary projection but an articulated array of functional projections, including DforceP, DfocusP, DtopicP and DdefiniteP. As their counterparts in the clausal domain, these functional projections encode discourse-related properties, such as illocutionary force, topic, and focus. As far as modification structures are concerned, this study argues that the bare modifier is base-generated in the Spec of a functional or lexical projection, whereas the marked modifier is adjoined to the left of the nominal phrase by the operation Adjunction.
Keywords
Nominal Phrase Structure, Sinitic languages, Minimalism
Sponsorship
1. Studying Abroad Scholarship, Ministry of Education, Republic of China (Taiwan)
2. Outstanding Theses and Dissertations on Hakka Studies, Hakka Affairs Council, Republic of China (Taiwan)
Identifiers
This record's DOI: https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.17167
Rights
No Creative Commons licence (All rights reserved), All Rights Reserved
Licence URL: https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/
Statistics
Total file downloads (since January 2020). For more information on metrics see the
IRUS guide.