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Reformulating the Determiner Phrase Analysis
Author(s) -
Bernstein Judy B.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
language and linguistics compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.619
H-Index - 44
ISSN - 1749-818X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-818x.2008.00091.x
Subject(s) - determiner , linguistics , phrase , determiner phrase , syntactic structure , argument (complex analysis) , predicate (mathematical logic) , nominal group , computer science , feature (linguistics) , natural language processing , noun phrase , syntax , artificial intelligence , philosophy , noun , biochemistry , chemistry , programming language
Developed in the 1980s, the Determiner Phrase (DP) analysis stimulated a lot of interest in the internal structure of nominal phrases and in the study of correspondences between nominal and clausal structure. Research across a range of languages has uncovered correspondences in areas such as agreement morphology, syntactic movement, and argument structure, some of which are reviewed here. Nominal phrases and clauses also match up in terms of their semantic function: both can serve as predicates or arguments. The issue of exactly what distinguishes a nominal argument from a nominal predicate has received a lot of attention, leading in particular to proposals about the underlying role of the definite article (and determiner elements in general). This article reviews some of these issues and proposals and suggests a reformulation that appeals to the feature ‘person’, a feature found in both the nominal and clausal domains.