In an "Aspect" and "Remarks" type lexicon, as well as in the "lexicalist" models that emerged in the '70s and '80s, a large role is played by listed (arbitrary) information in the lexical entries of (substantive) items. Such information could include all or some of the following:
a. The sound-meaning pair
b. Syntactic category
c. Syntactic insertion frame (subcatgorization)
d. Thematic roles
e. Derivational affixation
f. Inflectional affixation
At the same time, however, research during the same decades also attempted to reduce the amount of arbitrary information in the lexicon by deriving at least some of the properties in (a-f) from other components of the computational system.
The purpose of this class will be to investigate the structure of (referring) nominal expressions, with a particular focus on the following:
A. The investigation of the possibility of having a highly impoverished lexicon, restricted to (1a), and deriving everything else from (various) computational systems.
B. Postulate functional structures which are semantically motivated, and which obviate the need for both lexical listing and type shifting.
This class will investigate this issue from the perspective of DP structure. Topics discussed will be:
a. The lexical inventory: functional vs. substantive elements
b. Functional structure - its properties, its role, its interpretation.
c. Licensing Phrase Structure within the nominal domain
d. The Mass-Count distinction
e. Why singulars are special
f. Strong vs. Weak readings
g. The properties of the definite determiners
h. Proper names vs. Common names