Plural noun phrases and their readings: A reply to Lasersohn

1990 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 477-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brendan S. Gillon
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Plural Noun

A bidirectional study on the acquisition of plural noun phrase interpretation in English and Spanish

2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 483-518 ◽  
Author(s):  
TANIA IONIN ◽  
SILVINA MONTRUL ◽  
MÓNICA CRIVOS
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
First Language ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Language Transfer ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Plural Noun ◽  
First Language Transfer ◽  
Bare Plurals

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates how learners interpret definite plural noun phrases (e.g., the tigers) and bare (article-less) plural noun phrases (e.g., tigers) in their second language. Whereas Spanish allows definite plurals to have both generic and specific readings, English requires definite plurals to have specific, nongeneric readings. Generic readings in English are expressed with bare plurals, which are ungrammatical in Spanish in preverbal subject position. Two studies were conducted in order to investigate the role of first language transfer in this domain in both English → Spanish and Spanish → English directions. Study 1 used a meaning-focused task to probe learners’ interpretation of definite plural nour phrases, whereas Study 2 used a form-focused task to examine learners’ judgments of the acceptability of definite and bare plurals in generic versus specific contexts. First language transfer was attested in both directions, at lower proficiency levels, whereas more targetlike performance was attested at higher proficiency levels. Furthermore, learners were found to be more successful in learning about the (un)grammaticality of bare plurals in the target language than in assigning the target interpretation to definite versus bare plurals. This finding is shown to be consistent with other studies’ findings of plural noun phrase interpretation in monolingual and bilingual children.

Generic noun phrases in mother–child conversations

1998 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
ATHINA PAPPAS ◽  
SUSAN A. GELMAN
Keyword(s):  
Preschool Children ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Striking Difference ◽  
Plural Noun ◽  
Conceptual Organization ◽  
Single Instance ◽  
Essential Properties ◽  
Singular Noun ◽  
Context Free ◽  
Semantic Properties

Generic noun phrases (e.g. Tigers are fierce) are of interest for their semantic properties: they capture ‘essential’ properties, are timeless, and are context-free. The present study examines use of generic noun phrases by preschool children and their mothers. Mother–child pairs were videotaped while looking through a book of animal pictures. Each page depicted either a single instance of a particular category (e.g. one crab) or multiple instances of a particular category (e.g. many crabs). The results indicated a striking difference in how generics vs. non-generics were distributed, both in the speech of mothers and in the speech of preschool children. Whereas the form of non-generic noun phrases was closely linked to the structure of the page (i.e. singular noun phrases were used more often when a single instance was presented; plural noun phrases were used more often when multiple instances were presented), the form of generic noun phrases was independent of the information depicted (e.g. plural noun phrases were as frequent when only one instance was presented as when multiple instances were presented). We interpret the data as providing evidence that generic noun phrases differ in their semantics and conceptual organization from non-generic noun phrases, both in the input to young children and in children's own speech. Thus, this simple linguistic device may provide input to, and a reflection of, children's early developing notion of ‘kinds’.

scholarly journals Active prediction of syntactic information during sentence processing

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeynep Ilkin ◽  
Patrick Sturt
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
High Expectation ◽  
Plural Noun ◽  
Syntactic Information ◽  
Singular Noun

We describe an eye-tracking experiment that tested the effect of syntactic predictability on skipping rates during reading. We found that plural noun phrases were skipped more often than singular noun phrases, in syntactic contexts which induced a high expectation for a plural. We interpret this effect as evidence that the plural noun phrase has been predicted ahead of time. The results indicate that the examination of skipping rates might be a useful tool for the investigation of syntactic prediction effects.

scholarly journals The structure of plural last names in Spanish and other languages

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Camacho
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Nominal Group ◽  
Plural Noun ◽  
N Compounds

Spanish plural last name noun phrases appear with a plural determiner and a singular or plural noun. Last names marked as singular are interpreted as a group, whereas plural ones are interpreted as collection of individuals (additive reading), although both behave like fully plural DPs. Based on a comparison with first names, I propose that last names involve a null nominal ‘group’ head dominated by an associative plural realized as the plural morpheme on the determiner. When the last name is plural, it has an additional NUM head that forces the additive reading. The last name number patterns are shown to be similar to those of N-N compounds, with which they share other similarities. The paper also surveys crosslinguistic pluralization patterns, proposing potential patterns of variation: the presence/absence of the null nominal and the structural location of the associative plural head.

The readings of plural noun phrases in English

1987 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brendan S. Gillon
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Plural Noun

Assessing Plural Morphology in Children Acquiring /S/-Leniting Dialects of Spanish

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 173-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Miller
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Central America ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Sentence Frame ◽  
Clinical Marker ◽  
Plural Noun ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
Bare Nouns ◽  
Repetition Task

Purpose To examine the production of plural morphology in children acquiring a dialect of Spanish with syllable-final /s/ lenition with the goal of comparing how plural marker omissions in the speech of these children compare with plural marker omissions in children with language impairment acquiring other varieties of Spanish. Method Three production tasks were administered to children. A repetition task was used to examine children's production of the plural marker in plural noun phrases, and 2 Berko-style tasks evaluated children's production of the plural marker in bare nouns. Behavior on these tasks was compared with plural marker comprehension for each individual child. Results There was a correlation between children's comprehension of the plural marker and their production of the plural marker on plural noun phrases in the repetition task but not between comprehension and production of the plural marker on bare nouns in the Berko-style tasks. Conclusions Assessments of plural morphology as a clinical marker of language impairment in Spanish-speaking children may be problematic, especially in children acquiring dialects of Spanish with /s/ lenition, such as those originating in Chile, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Central America. Instead, for children acquiring /s/-leniting dialects of Spanish, assessments of the plural marker in noun phrases produced within a sentence frame may be a better indicator of acquisition than traditional Berko-style tasks that elicit bare nouns.

The Return of “Visiting Relatives”: Pragmatic Effects in Sentence Processing

1993 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 463-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
William T. Farrar ◽  
Alan H. Kawamoto
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Reading Task ◽  
Plural Noun ◽  
Syntactic Cues

Two experiments were performed to investigate the role of syntactic and pragmatic cues on the disambiguation of noun phrases of the form VERB+ing NOUN+s, like visiting relatives, that can be interpreted as either singular or plural noun phrases. Both experiments used a self-paced reading task in which reading times were measured for two words, a verb and an adverb, immediately following the potentially ambiguous noun phrase. The interpretation of the noun phrase as singular or plural was biased by pragmatic cues in the first experiment and by syntactic cues in the second experiment. In both experiments, subjects were faster to read the adverb following the verb when the interpretation biased by the cues agreed in number with the verb that immediately followed the target noun phrase than when it did not agree with the verb. These results suggest that pragmatic cues, like syntactic cues, can be utilized rapidly in sentence processing.

scholarly journals Plural definite NPs presuppose multiplicity via embedded exhaustification

2015 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clemens Mayr
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Plural Noun ◽  
Number Marking ◽  
Bare Plurals ◽  
Singular Reference ◽  
Plural Marking

There is evidence from bare plurals that strongly suggests that plural-marking on noun phrases does not exclude singular reference. This paper discusses the problematic consequence that such a view has for the analysis of definite plurals, namely that their multiplicity inference is not straightforwardly predicted. We adduce novel evidence that this inference is a presupposition arising from the application of the definite article to the plural noun phrase and that it cannot be explained away by a presuppositional analysis of number-marking (Sauerland 2003). It is proposed that plural- and singular-marking are scalar items subject to obligatory exhaustification (Ivlieva 2013). We show that global exhaustification is, however, untenable in the case of definite plurals, contra (Magri 2014). The semantics of the definite article is shown to force exhaustifiation to occur below itself on the noun phrase directly. Having reached this conclusion for definite plurals, makes it possible to drastically simplify the derivation of the multiplicity inference even in bare plurals when compared to competing proposals such as (Spector 2007a; Zweig 2009). 

The Meaning of More

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexis Wellwood
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Careful Study ◽  
Gradable Adjectives ◽  
Independent Evidence ◽  
Plural Noun ◽  
Lexical Categories ◽  
Verb Phrases ◽  
Comparative Constructions

This book re-imagines the compositional semantics of comparative constructions with words like “more”. It argues for a revision of one of the fundamental assumptions of the degree semantics framework as applied to such constructions: that gradable adjectives do not lexicalize measure functions (i.e., mappings from individuals or events to degrees). Instead, the degree morphology itself plays the role of degree introduction. The book begins with a careful study of non-canonical comparatives targeting nouns and verbs, and applies the lessons learned there to those targeting adjectives and adverbs. A primary distinction that the book draws extends the traditional distinction between gradable and non-gradable as applied to the adjectival domain to the distinction between “measurable” and “non-measurable” predicates that crosses lexical categories. The measurable predicates, in addition to the gradable adjectives, include mass noun phrases, plural noun phrases, imperfective verb phrases, and perfective atelic verb phrases. In each of these cases, independent evidence for non-trivial ordering relations on the relevant domains of predication are discussed, and measurability is tied to the accessibility of such orderings. Applying this compositional theory to the core cases and beyond, the book establishes that the selection of measure functions for a given comparative depends entirely on what is measured and compared rather than which expression introduces the measurement

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