Product Description: The chapters in this volume address current topics in the morphology, syntax, and semantics of nominalizations, drawing on a range of typologically and geographically diverse languages. Nominalizations represent a long-standing puzzle to linguists: How is a noun, such as destruction, related to the verb destroy? The semantic parallel between the deverbal nominalization and its related verb suggests that there is a close connection between the two...read more

Product Description: The syntax and semantics of deverbal action nominals, notoriously ambiguous between event and result interpretation, have been a thought-provoking issue in many areas of theoretical linguistics. This volume contributes to current work on this topic by showing how the analysis of these nouns can benefit from a morphological and lexical-semantic treatment...read more

Product Description: Research on nominalization, a process that gives rise to referring expressions, has always played a central role in linguistic investigations. Over the years there has also been growing evidence that nominalization constructions often extend to non-referential domains...read more

At a superficial examination, English has different types of nominals with similar meaning and distribution: (1)a. John's performance ofthe song b. J ohn' s performing of the song c. John's performing the song d. the fact that John performs the song These nominals are also perceived by English speakers to be related to the same sentential construction: (2) John performs the song A more accurate inspection reveals, however, that the nominals in (1) differ both in their distribution and in the range of interpretations they allow. An adequate theory of nominalization should explicate rigorously how nominals of the types in (1) are related to sentential construction (2), and should also account for their distributional differences and meaning differences. The task of this book is to develop such a theory. I defend two main theses. The first is that, in order to provide an adequate semantics for the nominals in (1), one needs to distinguish among three types of entities in the domain of discourse (in addition to the type of ordinary individuals): events, propositions, and states xiii XIV PREFACE of affairs. I argue that the nominals in (1) differ in their ability to denote entities of these types and that predicates differ in their ability to select for them.

Product Description: The purpose of the present study is to map the terms designating the craft "smith" in Indo-European languages, analysing their etymologies, classifying them according to semantic typology, and identifying "divine smiths." The designations of "smith" in various non-undo-European language families and isolated languages are also analysed...read more

This volume addresses the fundamental linguistic question of how the perceived world is expressed through systems of nominal classification. Leading scholars review the whole spectrum of nominal classification, from gender systems through to numeral classifiers, providing cutting-edge theoretical interpretations and empirical case studies across a variety of languages. The volume presents new ideas about the problems of classification and clarifies the interface between anthropological and grammatical work. It will appeal to linguists, anthropologists and psychologists alike as well as specialists in languages as diverse as Australian, Amazonian, and Mayan.

Product Description: This study presents a comprehensive treatment of determination, based on English, Italian and other Germanic or Romance languages. Determiners are identified as those dependents of a nominal head that determine the type of reference for the Noun Phrase, covering articles as well as demonstrative, possessive, quantitative, cardinal and ordinal determiners...read more

Product Description: This monograph presents a new model of the internal syntax of nominal phrases. The model is mainly based on Scandinavian, since with the wide range of variation that Scandinavian displays in the nominal domain, despite the close genetic relationship between the different varieties, Scandinavian is particularly well-suited for explorations into nominal syntax...read more

The Proper Treatment of Events offers a novel approach to the semantics of tense and aspect motivated by cognitive considerations. offers a new theory of the semantics of tense aspect and nominalizations that combines formal semantics and cognitive approaches written accessibly for students and scholars in theoretical linguists, as well as in philosophy of language, logic, cognitive science, and computer science accompanied by a website at (http://staff.science.uva.nl/~michiell/) that provides slides for instructors and background material for students

Since the early 1970s, the proper treatment and nominals and nominalization has been fundamental to syntactic theory. And yet a satisfactory approach continues to prove elusive. Working within the framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar, this book discusses the precise reasons why pronouns show particular distributions, why nominalized verbs inherit the predicational power of the verbs they're derived from, and what kind of syntactic category derived nominals should be assigned. Recent developments in LFG make it possible to examine discourse clitics and case markers as well, meaning this collection can address both "classic" nominal issues and novel new perspectives. (view table of contents)

This monograph offers an in depth investigation of nominalization processes across languages e.g. Greek, Germanic, Romance, Hebrew, Slavic. Adopting and extending the view that category formation does not involve any lexical operation (recently put forth within the framework of Distributed Morphology), it shows how the behavior of nominals as opposed to that of verbs follows from general processes operating in specific syntactic structures, and is linked with the presence or absence of functional layers (T, D, Aspect, v). It further defines criteria on the basis of which the organization of nominal functional structure can be determined. Moreover, it demonstrates how nominals split into several types, across languages and within a language, depending on the number and the type of functional projections they include. Furthermore, it substantiates the hypothesis that aspects of the syntax of DPs of nominative-accusative languages are strikingly similar to aspects of the syntax of ergative languages and discusses aspects of the syntax of the perfect. The book targets researchers in theoretical linguistics, comparative syntax, morphology and typology. It can also be used as a foundation book on the morpho-syntax of nominals, argument structure and word formation. (view table of contents)

Product Description: Noun Phrases and Nominalizations: The Syntax of DPs is a theoretical study of nominal expressions which covers central aspects of their syntax that have not been approached with concurrent tools in recent years. The study examines the functional structure, offers a structural definition of syntactic nominalization, and carefully draws the border line between the lexical nominalizing mechanism and its syntactic counterpart...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)