Subcategories 2: Other Subcategories of Nouns

1. Subcategories 2: Other Subcategories of Nouns Lec. 5

2. Other Subcategories of Nouns • In addition to pronouns & reflexive pronouns (anaphors), there are other subcategories of nouns: proper nouns, animate nouns, mass nouns, & count. nouns

3. 1. Proper Nouns Names such Andrew are called proper nouns • Andrew loves bagpipes • *The Andrew loves bagpipes • Big Andrew loves bagpipes • What is the distribution of proper nouns relative to determiners & adjectives? • How is the distribution of proper names different form that of pronouns?

4. the value +prop • Andrew CATEGORY N SUBCAT + prop Challenge! The Cranies are coming over tonight for dinner We Harleys love a good family challenge

5. 2. Animate Nouns • We should consider another subcategory: that of animate nouns. • animate nouns refer to that of living things • There is no obvious morphological mark of animate nouns in English, but we can find syntactic evidence for this group.

6. Exercise • Give each sentence a * if it is bad, a ? If it is OK, but a bit weird, & leave it blank if it is OK. • …………….Peter sent an email to Dave. • …………….Peter sent Dave an email. • ……………. Peter sent a letter to Detroit. • ……………. Peter sent Detroit a letter. • …………….Susan bought some flowers for her mother. • …………….Susan bought her mother some flowers. • …………….Susan bought some flowers for her birthday. • …………….Susan bought her birthday some flowers.

7. Discussion Prepositional Ditransitives Dative Constructions Peter sent Dave an email. ? Peter sent Detroit a letter. Susan bought her mother some flowers. ? Susan bought her birthday some flowers. • Peter sent an email to Dave. • Peter sent a letter to Detroit. • Susan bought some flowers for her mother. • Susan bought some flowers for her birthday.

8. Notation • Andrew CATEGORY N SUBCAT + prop + animate

9. Notation • Girl CATEGORY N SUBCAT + animate AGR – φNUM sg

10. Notation • Him CATEGORY N SUBCAT + D + animate CASE Acc AGR – φ GEND masc NUM sg PERS 3

11. Comment • We can see the new crucial bit among the three notations is the SUBCAT value of + animate

12. 3. Common Nouns: mass vs. count • Nouns that are not pronouns or proper names are known as common nouns.

13. Exercise • For each of the words below indicate whether it can occur with the quantifier muchor the quantifier many

14. Comment • There is a clear-cut distinction between nouns that can occur with the quantifier much and those that can occur with many • The issue is not plurality

15. Examples • * I ate apple • I ate apples • I ate the apple • I ate sugar • I ate the sugar • He is filled with sincerity • I doubt his sincerity • The sincerity of the President’s claims is in dispute

16. Comment • In some ways, mass nouns are like plural nouns (with/ without a determiner). BUT, • singular count nouns always require a determiner

17. Examples • *Cat ate the spider • The cat ate the spider • Cats ate the spider • The cats ate the spider

18. Note • Every cat ate the tuna • *Every water drowned the man • Several cats ate the tuna • *several waters drowned the man • Several & everycannot appear with mass nouns

19. Restrictions on Count & Mass Nouns

20. Mass & Count nouns • Consider these examples: • That soda is filled with sugar. mass • I’d like two sugars in my coffee please. count • Fire is dangerous. mass • He had a fire in his fireplace. count

21. Notation • We will mark nouns with the feature + • Count nouns + Count • Count nouns + Count / +pl • Mass nouns – Count Mass/ Pl Feature Co-occurrence Restriction * - count + pl

22. Notation • Girl CATEGORY N SUBCAT + animate + count AGR – φ NUM sg

23. Notation • Boys CATEGORY N SUBCAT + animate + count AGR – φ NUM pl

24. Notation • Cats CATEGORY N SUBCAT +animate + count AGR – φ NUM pl

25. The lake didn’t have much water in it • Water CATEGORY N SUBCAT - animate - count

26. I drank the water • Water CATEGORY N SUBCAT - animate + count AGR – φ NUM sg

27. Exercise • Flower CATEGORY N SUBCAT AGR – φ NUM

28. Exercise • Jane CATEGORY N SUBCAT AGR – φ NUM

29. Additional features

30. Summary • So far, we have identified the following different subcategories of nouns: • Proper nouns (+ prop) • Animate nouns ( +animate ) • Count nouns (+ count), which can be +plural • Mass nouns (- count)