1Encounter 8b. The DP7.1-7.2CAS LX 522Syntax IDeterminers vs. adjectives There are a number ofthings that can comebefore nouns in a nounphrase: fluffy bunny that bunny the bunny a bunny every bunny big fluffy bunny that fluffy bunny the fluffy bunny a fluffy bunny every fluffy bunny. *fluffy the bunny *that the bunny *a the bunny *every the bunny *fluffy every bunny *a every bunny *the every bunny *that every bunny There seem to be twoclasses, things like fluffythat can iterate, andthings like the that mustbe first and must beunique.Determiners The class that includes the, every, that,and so forth are called the determiners.They come in several subtypes, but theyform a category, which we designatewith the category feature [D]. Cf. the [V] feature of verbs, the [T] feature of T. There can be only one D in a nounphrase, and it must come first. Adjectives come after D and before N,and can iterate.Adjective iteration We’ve seen the iteration property elsewhere (PPadjuncts, for example): Pat ate lunch on the hill by the tree in the rain. Or adverbs (vP adjuncts): Pat deliberately completely ate the sandwich. So, it makes sense to suppose that adjectives arealso adjuncts. But to what? The big fluffy bunny. Notice that if big and fluffy are adjoined to NP, itsuggests that the must also be, if the whole thingis an NP. But then why can there be only one, andwhy does it have to be first?D vs. N Also, notice that D doesn’t stand alone. The feels incomplete. It needs a noun. Student does not feel similarly incomplete. Like (the prepositions) to, beside, or with feelincomplete, they also need something. Or (the verbs) sink, kick, dance. All of these are sort of “completed” bynouns. For P and V, we understand how:They select for a noun as their complement. So, maybe D is something like a P, selectingfor a noun phrase complement…The students is a DP This would mean that the students is not an NP,but rather a DP. It’s head-initial, like English is everywhere else. D selects for N ([uN*]), accounting for the inability to “stand alone” the inability to have more than one (it selects for N, not D) the fact that it must come before adjectives (adjoined to NP) Because it is D that forces the Merge, it is D that projects. The NP can be modified by (iterating) adjectives:big fluffy pink bunny.studentsDDPtheNP2The students arrived Ah, but there’s a problem. Why is The students arrived grammatical? Arrive is unaccusative, which we’ve formalized as a Vwith a single [uN*] feature and associated with aspecial “inert” v. T also has a strong [uN*] feature (the EPP feature),bringing the subject to SpecTP. How can either of those be satisfied? If we suppose arrive has a [uD*] feature instead, whyisn’t it *Students arrived the? Are there two different versions of arrive, one for thestudents arrived, and one for students arrived?A radical proposal? We can bring a degree of order to this chaos ifwe shift our thinking about “noun phrases”:Those things we called “noun phrases” beforewere always actually DPs. So, T doesn’t have a [uN*] feature—rather, it has a [uD*] feature. Prepositions don’t have a [uN*] feature,they have a [uD*] feature. No “version” of arrive has a [uN*] feature,it’s just the one arrive, but it has a [uD*] feature. The basic form of a “noun phrase” is notstudents, but rather a student, the students. Adeterminer phrase.Students arrived Taking that step, we have (the specter atleast) of the opposite problem:If arrive has a [uD*] feature and T has a [uD*]feature, how come Students arrived isgrammatical? How are those featureschecked? Stand firm, brave syntacticians. We grit our teeth, and conclude what wemust: Students in Students arrived is in fact aDP. It has a determiner, which heads the DP.That determiner just happens to be silent.[DP Ø students ] arrived The silent D (null determiner) “shows up” withcertain kinds of nouns, most notably the bareplurals (Ø books, Ø students) or mass nouns (Ølunch) that we’ve mostly been using up until now. There are no “bare singulars” in English: you can’tuse Ø book or Ø student (as in *Ø studentarrived). The null determiner seems to beincompatible with singular nouns— it shows a kindof number agreement. The related singular formwould use the indefinite article a: A studentarrived.There is still an NP What we’re doing now suggests that all ofthose places in previous trees where wewrote “NP”, we should have written “DP”instead. But there still is a category N, and there stillare phrasal NPs, of course. We just find themin the complement of D, not on their own. That is, “N comes with D.” Hierarchy of Projections (relevant to nouns):D > NThose were DPs What we’re doing now suggests that all ofthose places in previous trees where wewrote “NP”, we should have written “DP”instead. Just to be clear on that point: When youdraw structures for the very same sentencesthat we drew structures for in the past, thosestructures should now contain DPs, not justNPs. Keep that in mind as you review pasthandouts.3One-replacement This book or that one This book or the one about cats It appears that in English, the word one canreplace something smaller than the DP (henceevidence for the DP having an NP inside it.) The big green book of poetry on the shelf This one on my desk This small one on my desk This small red one on my desk *This small red one of riddles on my deskOne-replacement The book of poetry on my desk in the corner under the coffee The book of poetry in the corner on my desk under the coffee The book of poetry under the coffee in the corner on my desk *The book under the coffee of poetry in the corner on my desk Any number of PPs can appear here, in any order,except of poetry seems to need to be first.One-replacement This book of poetry on my desk *This book on my desk of poetry. *This book of poetry of riddles. That one on the floor. *That one of riddles on the floor. This book on my desk by the coffee. This book by the coffee on my desk. That one by the pencils. What’s the pattern? Whence the pattern? Of the PP’s, one kind (of poetry) seems to have to come first. There cannot be more than one