SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This thesis attempts to provide an account of certain aspects of the Noun Phrase in Modern Greek. It is composed of four chapters. In the first chapter (I) the formal apparatus and the devices used, which are those of the recent formulation of the Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar (GPSG), are presented. In the second chapter (II) phrase structure rules for the items occupying the specifier positions - i.e. prenominal modifiers - are proposed. In particular, the distribution and interaction of articles and expressions of quantification and degree are discussed. Then, the internal structure of Adjective Phrases marked as + or -Q is considered. Finally, the position of adjectives within the noun phrase is examined. It is argued that adjectives appearing after the noun in both definite and indefinite NPs are, indeed, complements, whereas in prehead position they are (attributive) specifiers, but in either case they are restrictive modifiers, therefore they belong to N'. As (posthead) complements they are instances of the phenomenon of so-called 'appositon' - namely they are [a case] complements. In the Appendix the phenomenon of restrictive nominal apposition is viewed with regard to both English and Modern Greek. Thus, while in English apposition falls under the description of attributive (prenominal) modification, as Burton has effectively shown, in modern Greek it is rather a descriptive term for nominal complementation. It is only the 'pseudopartitive' construction in MG that is referred to as 'apposition' and exhibits a case of premodification, in addition to a case of complementation related to the same construction. It is this structural ambiguity of the 'pseudopartitive' construction that is pointed out in chapter three (III), and rules for the two structures corresponding to the two interpretations of this construction - an amount and a consistive one - are proposed. In this chapter the partitive construction and a type of nominal complement marked as [+nominative] are also examined. In the fourth (IV) chapter I concentrate upon adjectival and nominal ('Free') relatives. Dependencies into subject, object, possessive genitive and object of preposition position - in both wh- and pu adjectival and nominal relatives-are taken care of by two general slash elimination metarules (SEM I, SEM II) that are introduced in chapter I. With regard to nominal relatives, it is shown that if they occupy an argument position within the main clause they are headed, the wh-phrase introducing them being their head; nominal relatives that occupy a non-argument position - such as a topic position - are headless, the wh-phrase being in a position parallel to that occupied by the w/i-phrase (pronoun) in ordinary adjectival relatives.