7 - Noun Phrases

Summary

This chapter integrates the treatments of quantifier phrases, genitives, and pronouns from Chapters 6 and 7 in a more detailed assignment-variable-based layered n analysis of noun phrases. Applications to additional effects associated with “specificity” are explored, including presuppositional vs. nonpresuppositional uses, contextual domain restriction, weak vs. strong quantifiers, existential ‘there’ sentences, and modal independence. Possibilities for nonlocal readings of world arguments are captured in a general phase-based syntax. An alternative matching analysis of relative clauses is provided, which improves on the head-raising account from Chapter 6. A semantics incorporating events is briefly considered in a parallel layered v analysis of verb phrases.