120227 SE Linguistics Seminar / MA historical & descriptive linguistics (2017S)

It is generally acknowledged that, along with verbs, nouns are a dominant part of speech, playing a central role in verbal communication. It is therefore hardly surprising that a large amount of research has been carried out into the form, function and internal structure of noun phrases (NPs). Despite the wealth of descriptive information and the large number of structural analyses this has produced, there are nevertheless many fundamental issues that remain as yet unresolved. The aim of this course is to look in detail at a number of this issues, to consider the structural, functional and cognitive dimensions of NPs, and to explore the interaction between these dimensions.

Topics will include:
- the internal structure of the NP: heads, modifiers, determiners
- different types of heads, modifiers, determiners
- the use and analysis of pronouns
- the use and analysis of special types of NP: partitives ('three of my friends'), pseudo-partitives ('a box of chocolates', 'a pile of money'), binominals ('that fool of a doctor').
These topics will not be treated from the point of one particular theoretical model; instead, throughout the course, relevant principles and notions from various linguistic frameworks will be drawn upon, compared and critically reviewed.