Abstract
The very high degree of complexity of the structure of languages becomes evident when one engages in extensive surveys of their structure. In spite of including a very important regular component, languages are very irregular in many of their aspects; this is shown for instance by the numerical importance of idioms and other fixed expressions both in the lexicon and in texts, and in the great variety of valencies exhibited by verbs and other items. Above all, the high incidence of idiosyncrasy in the system must be taken into account. All these kinds of phenomena are treated in the lexicon, since they are often conditioned by individual lexical items, and are only liable to generalization in limited ways. The complex interplay between grammatical and cognitive factors shows especially in the structure of the NP, which is examined here in some detail.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Another source of idiosyncrasy is inflectional morphology, in particular in languages with rich verb systems, as is the case of Portuguese; and also derivational morphology, an area where one frequently has to abandon all attempt at the formulation of rules.
- 3.
This custom is, fortunately, less and less frequent.
- 4.
This was my feeling when I finished my graduate studies in the mid-seventies.
- 5.
See also Culicover’s observations on idiosyncrasy in grammar (1999, Chap. 3).
- 6.
The results were published as Perini et al. (1996).
- 7.
In some languages words are, but not larger units. In the written language, of course, constituents are partially marked with spaces, plus signs like comma, question mark, and period.
- 8.
As has long been recognized, here also there are exceptions, if comparatively few; for instance, in this book is difficult to read we need the semantic unit “read this book,” which does not correspond to any syntactic constituent.
- 9.
Actually, this is a partly semantic restriction, since the presence of the preposition has an impact on the meaning of the phrase: prepositional phrases have no referential potential.
- 10.
These observations are valid at the highest level of constituency; if we go down to subordinate-phrase level, on the roof contains the NP the roof, where the word roof is the head.
- 11.
They come in part from Liberato (1997).
- 12.
When the signal is shown, as in [+Q], the feature refers to a potential: “this form can be a Q”; when no signal is shown, as in [Q], we refer to the actual realization in that context: “this form is a Q here.” Qualificative is a convenient label; in fact, it might be called restrictive, because its function is to restrict the reference of the head: a black bird is not any bird, but a black one. But restrictive begins with the same letter as referential, so I prefer the (by the way traditional) term qualificative.
- 13.
“Thing” is a technical term and includes persons, animals, and abstractions as well. For an elaborate definition, see Langacker (1987, Chap. 5).
- 14.
Not necessarily more specific: elaborate reference may be generic, as in small yellow dogs are very friendly.
- 15.
Let us ignore the article, um(a), which adds nothing to the point.
- 16.
Apart from the problem that “noun” could not be defined by its property of being able to occur as the head of an NP, of course.
- 17.
There are other problems of a more theoretical nature, having to do with the distinction between classes and functions, which I discuss elsewhere (Perini Forthcoming).
- 18.
Only in the items this and that, which agree in number.
References
Bloomfield, L. (1933). Language. London: Allen and Unwin.
Carnie, A. (2011). Modern syntax: A coursebook. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Company, C. C. (1992). La frase sustantiva en el español medieval. Cuatro cambios sintácticos. [The noun phrase in medieval Spanish. Four syntactic changes]. México: UNAM.
Culicover, P., & Jackendoff, R. S. (2005). Simpler syntax. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fulgêncio, L. (2008). Expressões fixas e idiomatismos do português brasileiro [Fixed expressions and idioms in Brazilian Portuguese]. Belo Horizonte: Doctoral Thesis, PUC-Minas.
Fulgêncio, L. (ms). Dicionário de expressões fixas e idiomatismos do português. [Dictionary of fixed expressions and idioms in Portuguese].
Gross, M. (1975). Méthodes en syntaxe. Paris: Hermann.
Liberato, Y. G. (1997). A estrutura do SN em português: uma abordagem cognitiva. [The structure of the NP in Portuguese: a cognitive approach]. Doctoral Thesis, UFMG.
McGlashan, S. (1993). Heads and lexical semantics. In G. G. Corbett, N. M. Fraser, & S. McGlashan (Eds.), Heads in grammatical theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Minsky, M. (1985). The society of mind. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Nichols, J. (1986). Head-marking and dependent-marking grammar. Language, 62, 1.
Norman, D. A., & Bobrow, D. G. (1975). On the role of active memory processes in perception and cognition. In C. N. Cofer (Ed.), The structure of human memory. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman.
Perini, Mário A (Forthcoming). Class and function in linguistic theory: word classes, prototypes, and grammatical categories
Perini, Mário A., Lúcia, F., Regina, B., Sigrid, F. (1996). O Sintagma nominal em português: Estrutura, significado e função. [The NP in Portuguese: structure, meaning, and function] Revista de Estudos da Linguagem (special number). Belo Horizonte: UFMG. Available at <periodicos.letras.ufmg.br / index.php / relin / issue / view / 409>.
Rumelhart, D. E., & Ortony, A. (1976). The representation of knowledge in memory. La Jolla, CA: Center for Human Information Processing, University of California, San Diego.
Schank, R. C., & Abelson, R. (1977). Scripts plans goals and understanding: An inquiry into human knowledge structures. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Sells, P. (1985). Lectures on contemporary syntactic theories. Stanford: CSLI.
Zwicky, A. (1993). Heads, bases and functors. In G. G. Corbett, N. M. Fraser, & S. McGlashan (Eds.), Heads in grammatical theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Perini, M.A. (2019). Apology of the Lexicon. In: Thematic Relations. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28538-8_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28538-8_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-28537-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-28538-8
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)