17.3584, Qs: Syntax of NP Coordination with PP Modifiers

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LINGUIST List: Vol-17-3584. Mon Dec 04 2006. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 17.3584, Qs: Syntax of NP Coordination with PP Modifiers

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1)
Date: 03-Dec-2006
From: Myroslava Dzikovska < mdzikovs at inf.ed.ac.uk >
Subject: Syntax of NP Coordination with PP Modifiers 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Mon, 04 Dec 2006 23:02:47
From: Myroslava Dzikovska < mdzikovs at inf.ed.ac.uk >
Subject: Syntax of NP Coordination with PP Modifiers 
 


Syntax books usually suggest that PP modifiers attach on the N' level, 
assuming the phrase structure
N' -> N' PP
NP -> Det N'

One of the sources of evidence for this is taken to be coordination
(1) The [boys and girls]_N' [in the picture]_PP are smiling

However, the corpus I am looking at contains many phrases such as
(2) the man and the woman in the picture made an agreement

In this case, it appears that ''in the picture'' is attaching to the NP, rather 
than N'

Yet allowing for this in a grammar creates many other problems - if the rule 
NP -> NP PP is allowed, then names and pronouns can be modified by PPs, 
and there is unexpected ambiguity in noun phrases such as ''the man in the 
picture''

I looked into books on HPSG syntax and G&B theory, and only found 
accounts of N' -> N' NP rule, with coordination used as evidence. I would 
appreciate references that describe how to account for both (1) and (2).

Myroslava 

Linguistic Field(s): Semantics
                     Syntax




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