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 soforth are called the determiners. They comein several subtypes, but they form acategory, which we designate with thecategory feature [D]. Cf. the [V] feature of verbs, the [T] feature of T. There can be only one D in a noun phrase,and it must come first. Adjectives come after D and before N, andcan 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 are alsoadjuncts. 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 thing is anNP. But then why can there be only one, and whydoes 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” by nouns.For P and V, we understand how: They select fora noun as their complement. So, maybe D is something like a P, selecting for anoun phrase complement…The students is a DP This would mean that the students is not an NP, butrather 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 if weshift 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 onearrive, but it has a [uD*] feature. The basic form of a “noun phrase” is not students,but rather a student, the students. A determinerphrase.Students arrived Taking that step, we have (the specter at least) ofthe opposite problem:If arrive has a [uD*] feature and T has a [uD*]feature, how come Students arrived isgrammatical? How are those features checked? Stand firm, syntactic soldier. We grit our teeth, and conclude what we must:Students in Students arrived is in fact a DP. Ithas a determiner, which heads the DP. Thatdeterminer 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 (Ø lunch)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 student arrived). Thenull determiner seems to be incompatible withsingular nouns— it shows a kind of numberagreement. The related singular form would use theindefinite article a: A student arrived.There is still an NP What we’re doing now suggests that all ofthose places in previous trees where we wrote“NP”, we should have written “DP” instead. But there still is a category N, and there still arephrasal NPs, of course. We just find them in thecomplement 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 we wrote“NP”, we should have written “DP” instead. Just to be clear on that point: When you drawstructures for the very same sentences that wedrew structures for in the past, those structuresshould now contain DPs, not just NPs. Keep thatin mind as you review past handouts.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 cornerunder the coffee The book of poetry in the corner on my deskunder the coffee The book of poetry under the coffee in thecorner on my desk *The book under the coffee of poetry in thecorner on my desk Any number of PPs can appear here, in anyorder, 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 of
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