Jan Rijkhoff

The noun phrase

1. Preliminaries 2. Nominal Subcategories: Seinsarten 3. Nouns: Real and Apparent Nominal Subclasses 4. Qualifying Modifiers in the Noun Phrase 5. Quantifying Modifiers in the Noun Phrase 6. Localizing Modifiers in the Noun Phrase 7. The Underlying Structure of Noun Phrases 8. Ordering Principles, Domain Integrity, and Discontinuity 9. Greenbergian Word Order Correlations and the Principle of Head Proximity 10. The Principle of Scope 11. Epilogue Further Reading

Parts-of-speech systems and word order

This paper argues that the word order possibilities of a language are partly determined by the parts-of-speech system of that language. In languages in which lexical items are specialized for certain functionally defined syntactic slots (e.g. the modifier slot within a noun phrase), the identifiability of these slots is ensured by the nature of the lexical items (e.g. adjectives) themselves. As a result, word order possibilities are relatively unrestricted in these languages. In languages in which lexical items are not specialized for certain syntactic slots, in that these items combine the functions of two or more of the traditional word classes, other strategies have to be invoked to enhance identifiability. In these languages word order constraints are used to make syntactic slots identifiable on the basis of their position within the clause or phrase. Hence the word order possibilities are rather restricted in these languages. Counterexamples to the latter claim all involve cases in which identifiability is ensured by morphological rather than syntactic means. This shows that there is a balanced trade-off between the syntactic, morphological, and lexical structure of a language.

The Noun Phrase in Functional Discourse Grammar

This volume contains a collection of studies that analyse the noun phrase within the framework of Functional Discourse Grammar (FDG), the newest version of Functional Grammar as originally developed by Simon C. Dik. The contributions examine the noun phrase from a typological, semantic, interpersonal, morphosyntactic, logical and textual perspective, offering new findings and important insights that are relevant for linguists of any theoretical persuasion.

Flexible word classes: typological studies of underspecified parts of speech

This book is the first major cross-linguistic study of ‘flexible words’, i.e. words that cannot be classified in terms of the traditional lexical categories Verb, Noun, Adjective or Adverb. This is because flexible words can -without special morphosyntactic marking- serve in functions for which other languages must employ members of two or more of the four traditional, ‘specialised’ word classes. Thus, flexible words are underspecified for communicative functions like ‘predicating’ (verbal function), ‘referring’ (nominal function) or ‘modifying’ (a function typically associated with adjectives and e.g. manner adverbs). Even though languages with flexible word classes have been know to exist for more than a century, the phenomenon of lexical flexibility has not played a role in the development of linguistic typology or modern grammatical theory. The current volume aims to remedy this situation by offering ten detailed studies on lexical word classes, investigating their properties and what it means for the grammar of a language to have such a word class. Each contributor to this volume is an expert on lexical flexibility, either because the author has studied lexical flexibility in a particular language, or because (s)he has investigated flexible word classes across languages. Furthermore, this collection of articles provides a variety of theoretical perspectives on the phenomenon of lexical flexibility. The book shows that the recognition and study of flexible words adds significantly to our understanding of the nature of human language and its place in human cognition.

Flexible word classes in linguistic typology and grammatical theory

This book is the first major cross-linguistic study of ‘flexible words’, i.e. words that cannot be classified in terms of the traditional lexical categories Verb, Noun, Adjective or Adverb. This is because flexible words can -without special morphosyntactic marking- serve in functions for which other languages must employ members of two or more of the four traditional, ‘specialised’ word classes. Thus, flexible words are underspecified for communicative functions like ‘predicating’ (verbal function), ‘referring’ (nominal function) or ‘modifying’ (a function typically associated with adjectives and e.g. manner adverbs). Even though languages with flexible word classes have been know to exist for more than a century, the phenomenon of lexical flexibility has not played a role in the development of linguistic typology or modern grammatical theory. The current volume aims to remedy this situation by offering ten detailed studies on lexical word classes, investigating their properties and what it means for the grammar of a language to have such a word class. Each contributor to this volume is an expert on lexical flexibility, either because the author has studied lexical flexibility in a particular language, or because (s)he has investigated flexible word classes across languages. Furthermore, this collection of articles provides a variety of theoretical perspectives on the phenomenon of lexical flexibility. The book shows that the recognition and study of flexible words adds significantly to our understanding of the nature of human language and its place in human cognition.

When can a language have nouns and verbs

Abstract Whereas in most languages nouns and verbs are distinct lexical categories, there are also languages like Samoan, in which such a distinction does not seem to serve any descriptive purpose in the grammar. This contribution is an attempt to discover what distinguishes languages in which nouns and verbs are separate word classes from languages without a rigid noun/verb distinction. I will argue that transitivity plays an essential role in the parts-of-speech systems of languages across the globe in that a language can only have distinct classes of nouns and verbs if a subgroup of the basic lexical items in a language are semantically coded as designating a transitive relationship. There is a difference, however, in that the presence of a set of transitive items in the basic lexicon is a necessary and sufficient condition for a language to have a major, distinct class of verbs, but only a necessary condition for a language before it can have a major, distinct class of nouns. Ultimately I will argue that a language can only have distinct classes of verbs, nouns, and adjectives if the basic meaning of lexical items somehow encodes the prototypical properties of temporal and spatial entities (events and things). The prototypical event is an activity that involves an agent and a patient; the prototypical thing is a concrete object. Thus, a language can only have major, distinct classes of verbs, nouns and adjectives if the lexicon contains (a) items that designate a dynamic relationship between an agent and a patient, and (b) items that designate a property that is specified as having a boundary in the spatial dimension.

Descriptive and discourse-referential modifiers in a layered model of the noun phrase

Abstract This article argues that adnominal modifiers in a layered model of the noun phrase can be divided into two major subcategories: descriptive modifiers and discourse-referential modifiers. Whereas descriptive modifiers can be subdivided into classifying, qualifying, quantifying and localizing modifiers (Section 2), discourse-referential modifiers in the noun phrase are concerned with the status of entities as referents in the world of discourse (Section 3). I will pay particular attention to three issues: (i) formal reflections of the layered, semantic structure of the noun phrase (Section 4), (ii) the special relationship between localizing and discourse-referential modifiers (Section 5), and (iii) semantic and morphosyntactic parallels between modifier categories in the noun phrase and the clause (Section 6). In addition this sample-based typological study shows (contra Hawkinss Universal 20′) that there are languages with the adjective before and the demonstrative or numeral after the head noun. These word order patterns provide additional support for the layered model of the noun phrase defended here in that it can now be shown for the first time that all patterns that iconically reflect the layered structure of the simple noun phrase are actually attested in the languages of the world.

On the (un)suitability of semantic categories

Abstract Since Greenbergs groundbreaking publication on universals of grammar, typologists have used semantic categories to investigate (constraints on) morphological and syntactic variation in the worlds languages and this tradition has been continued in the WALS project. It is argued here that the employment of semantic categories has some serious drawbacks, however, suggesting that semantic categories, just like formal categories, cannot be equated across languages in morphosyntactic typology. Whereas formal categories are too narrow in that they do not cover all structural variants attested across languages, semantic categories can be too wide, including too many structural variants. Furthermore, it appears that in some major typological studies semantic categories have been confused with formal categories. A possible solution is pointed out: typologists first need to make sure that the forms or constructions under investigation do the same job in the various languages ( functional sameness ); subsequently this functional selection can be narrowed down on the basis of formal or semantic criteria to construct a set of elements that is similar enough to allow for crosslinguistic comparison ( formal and semantic similarity ).

Crosslinguistic categories in morphosyntactic typology: Problems and prospects

Abstract This article offers a new, transparent method to construe morphosyntactic categories for crosslinguistic research. It avoids the problem of categorial confusion attested in major post-Greenbergian studies in morphosyntactic typology, in particular in probabilistic typological investigations, which tend to mix up semantic and formal criteria and marginalize “statistically insignificant” morphosyntactic variants. These and other problems are avoided by using functional criteria as the starting point in identifying comparable forms and constructions in different languages. Subsequently formal and semantic criteria are employed to arrive at a morphosyntactic category whose members are sufficiently similar in terms of function, form, and meaning.

Teaching & Learning Guide for: Word Classes

Word classes (‘parts-of-speech’, ‘syntactic categories’, ‘lexical categories’) are the fundamental building blocks of linguistic expressions in all natural human languages. They have been investigated since antiquity and continue to play a central role in modern linguistics. Today an increasingly important role is assigned to the information that is specified in the lexical entry of a word in the lexicon (including, of course, information about its category membership), both in formal and in functional approaches to grammar. Furthermore, there is a growing awareness that the traditional set of word classes is biased towards the better studied European languages and needs to be revised to accommodate unfamiliar word classes in nonEuropean languages.