1 / 30

Subcategories 2: Other Subcategories of Nouns

Subcategories 2: Other Subcategories of Nouns. Lec . 5. Other Subcategories of Nouns. In addition to pronouns & reflexive pronouns (anaphors), there are other subcategories of nouns: proper nouns, animate nouns, mass nouns, & count. nouns. 1. Proper Nouns.

melyssa-patterson
Download Presentation

Subcategories 2: Other Subcategories of Nouns

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Subcategories 2: Other Subcategories of Nouns Lec. 5

  2. Other Subcategories of Nouns • In addition to pronouns & reflexive pronouns (anaphors), there are other subcategories of nouns: proper nouns, animate nouns, mass nouns, & count. nouns

  3. 1. Proper Nouns Names such Andrew are called proper nouns • Andrew loves bagpipes • *The Andrew loves bagpipes • Big Andrew loves bagpipes • What is the distribution of proper nouns relative to determiners & adjectives? • How is the distribution of proper names different form that of pronouns?

  4. the value +prop • Andrew CATEGORY N SUBCAT + prop Challenge! The Cranies are coming over tonight for dinner We Harleys love a good family challenge

  5. 2. Animate Nouns • We should consider another subcategory: that of animate nouns. • animate nouns refer to that of living things • There is no obvious morphological mark of animate nouns in English, but we can find syntactic evidence for this group.

  6. Exercise • Give each sentence a * if it is bad, a ? If it is OK, but a bit weird, & leave it blank if it is OK. • …………….Peter sent an email to Dave. • …………….Peter sent Dave an email. • ……………. Peter sent a letter to Detroit. • ……………. Peter sent Detroit a letter. • …………….Susan bought some flowers for her mother. • …………….Susan bought her mother some flowers. • …………….Susan bought some flowers for her birthday. • …………….Susan bought her birthday some flowers.

  7. Discussion Prepositional Ditransitives Dative Constructions Peter sent Dave an email. ? Peter sent Detroit a letter. Susan bought her mother some flowers. ? Susan bought her birthday some flowers. • Peter sent an email to Dave. • Peter sent a letter to Detroit. • Susan bought some flowers for her mother. • Susan bought some flowers for her birthday.

  8. Notation • Andrew CATEGORY N SUBCAT + prop + animate

  9. Notation • Girl CATEGORY N SUBCAT + animate AGR – φNUM sg

  10. Notation • Him CATEGORY N SUBCAT + D + animate CASE Acc AGR – φ GEND masc NUM sg PERS 3

  11. Comment • We can see the new crucial bit among the three notations is the SUBCAT value of + animate

  12. 3. Common Nouns: mass vs. count • Nouns that are not pronouns or proper names are known as common nouns.

  13. Exercise • For each of the words below indicate whether it can occur with the quantifier muchor the quantifier many

  14. Comment • There is a clear-cut distinction between nouns that can occur with the quantifier much and those that can occur with many • The issue is not plurality

  15. Examples • * I ate apple • I ate apples • I ate the apple • I ate sugar • I ate the sugar • He is filled with sincerity • I doubt his sincerity • The sincerity of the President’s claims is in dispute

  16. Comment • In some ways, mass nouns are like plural nouns (with/ without a determiner). BUT, • singular count nouns always require a determiner

  17. Examples • *Cat ate the spider • The cat ate the spider • Cats ate the spider • The cats ate the spider

  18. Note • Every cat ate the tuna • *Every water drowned the man • Several cats ate the tuna • *several waters drowned the man • Several & everycannot appear with mass nouns

  19. Restrictions on Count & Mass Nouns

  20. Mass & Count nouns • Consider these examples: • That soda is filled with sugar. mass • I’d like two sugars in my coffee please. count • Fire is dangerous. mass • He had a fire in his fireplace. count

  21. Notation • We will mark nouns with the feature + • Count nouns + Count • Count nouns + Count / +pl • Mass nouns – Count Mass/ Pl Feature Co-occurrence Restriction * - count + pl

  22. Notation • Girl CATEGORY N SUBCAT + animate + count AGR – φ NUM sg

  23. Notation • Boys CATEGORY N SUBCAT + animate + count AGR – φ NUM pl

  24. Notation • Cats CATEGORY N SUBCAT +animate + count AGR – φ NUM pl

  25. The lake didn’t have much water in it • Water CATEGORY N SUBCAT - animate - count

  26. I drank the water • Water CATEGORY N SUBCAT - animate + count AGR – φ NUM sg

  27. Exercise • Flower CATEGORY N SUBCAT AGR – φ NUM

  28. Exercise • Jane CATEGORY N SUBCAT AGR – φ NUM

  29. Additional features

  30. Summary • So far, we have identified the following different subcategories of nouns: • Proper nouns (+ prop) • Animate nouns ( +animate ) • Count nouns (+ count), which can be +plural • Mass nouns (- count)

More Related