DPs and Demonstratives

[Bryan Gordon]

On 2/23/06, Rory M Larson <rlarson at unlnotes.unl.edu> wrote:
>
> Bob wrote:
> > Then, of course, there's the question whether Siouan has "modifiers" in
> the Indo-European or Semitic sense.  I think most of us agree that these
> things have verbal force (or are simply verbs) in Siouan.
>
> Yes, I'd certainly agree with that.  But I think Bryan's example is a fair
> analogy to the point we were discussing.  Is the combination N dem-det an
> apposition with N and dem-det standing separately as two co-equal
> nominals,
> or does the dem-det modify/restrict/classify the N such that the N is the
> sole head of the N dem-det noun phrase?  Or can there be an intermediate
> interpretation?  Perhaps it is ambiguous or ambivalent even within the
> population of native speakers?


This is the right question to ask. Although we can never truly rule out
intermediate interpretations entirely in the sphere of how much attention
speakers pay to the distinction, I would say that apposition versus
restriction are more or less in complementary opposition, since they entail
radically different syntactic structures (i.e., two separate NP's as opposed
to one NP properly contained within another).

As far as the Semitic examples are concerned, they certainly can be
appositions as in (1), and the Det-adj constructions can certainly function
as independent NP's as in (2).

1. (apposition - non-restrictive)
bil klinton dibar ?emesh. ha+nashi? ha+maksim lavash xalifa shel ?armani
Bill Clinton spoke last.night. the+president the+charismatic wore suit of
Armani.

2. (restrictive)
shne ?anashim ba?u, ha+?ish ha+gavoa bi+shmone v+ha+guts b+?eser
two men came arrived, the+man the+tall at+eight and+the+short at+ten

But the construction "ha?ish hagavoa" is clearly restrictive, even though it
is not formally (morphosyntactically) distinguished from the apposition
"hanashi? hamaksim." It is, however, probable that there is a considerable
difference in stress and/or intonation (i.e., accenting the restrictive
"hagavoa" while leaving the all-old-information "hanashi? hamaksim"
completely accentless).

Rory
>
>
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