Are phrases universal?

[Paolo Ramat]

See the attachment

Prof. Paolo Ramat
Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori (IUSS)
Responsabile della classe di Scienze Umane
V.le Lungo Ticino Sforza 56, 27100 Pavia - Italia
Tel. +39 0382 375811 Fax +39 0382 375899


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <dlevere at ILSTU.EDU>
To: <LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
Sent: Friday, August 28, 2009 3:31 PM
Subject: Re: Are phrases universal?


It is possible to write a grammar with only Linear Precedence Rules +
linking rules for semantic interpretation that doesn't depend on
phrase structure rules. So although it is very common for linguists to
think in terms of phrase structure, I think that it might be
worthwhile (and not too difficult) to provide argumentation to the
effect that this or that language is better analyzed with hierarchical
phrase structure rules than LP rules.

Dan

Quoting Johanna Nichols <johanna at BERKELEY.EDU>:

> The entries on that WALS map were based on the marking in clauses and
> possessive phrases, so for all six of those languages there seems to have
> been something that could be identified as a possessive phrase (an NP with
> an adnominal possessor).  I think all six languages have fixed word order
> in those phrases, suggesting that there are indeed phrases there.
>
> Johanna Nichols
>
>
> Alexander V Bochkov wrote:
>> Dear colleagues,
>>
>> I am working on a paper and I need your help (if you have references,
>> that's even better!)
>>
>> 1. How universal is the phrase? In other words, are there languages that
>> lack phrases completely? By phrase I roughly understand "a set of
>> syntactic elements which form a constituent (=relatively independent 
>> group
>> of words)." (Bussmann, Hadumod, Gregory Trauth, Kerstin Kazzazi, and
>> Hadumod Bussmann. 1996. Routledge dictionary of language and linguistics.
>> Routledge reference. London: Routledge. - p. 902)
>>  2. WALS says that there are 6 languages with zero head/dependent marking
>> http://wals.info/feature/25 . It is not entirely clear whether those
>> languages have phrases or not. If they do, how do we know that?
>>
>> Thank you.
>>
>> Alexander Bochkov
>> --------------------------
>> Department of Second Language Studies
>> University of Hawaii at Manoa
>> http://www.hawaii.edu/sls
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>



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