Theory of Nouns

This book investigates the structure of the nominal phrase in Hindi under the theoretical assumptions that nouns and verbs parallel in their internal structure. That is, nouns and verbs and for that matter other words, that either associate with the nouns or the verbs, are identical inside, in their internal world. This assumption has been called determiner phrase analysis of the nominal elements in the existing literature (Abney 1987). I draw upon evidence from the different phenomena of the nominal phrases, such as the genitive constructions, (in)definiteness, focus and topic inside them, displacement phenomenon within the noun and the gerund constructions. The study is reported in five chapters. A theoretical outline is briefly sketched in chapter one outlining the theoretical issues behind the motivation of the determiner phrase analysis of the nominal phrase. I present a brief outline of Abney (1987), a seminal work on the determiner phrase hypothesis of the nominal phrases. I also present a brief overview of some of the subsequent works on the determiner phrase analysis of noun phrase in various languages including some of the Indic languages. I conclude this chapter with a brief outline of the basic assumptions of the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995), the grammatical framework within which I present my study of the nouns. In chapter two, I present a brief survey of literature on the nominal phrase in Hindi as well as a brief outline of some of the works on the nominal phrase in other Indian languages that have been done under the determiner phrase hypothesis approach. Chapter three is dedicated to examining the structure of the nominal phrase in Hindi. It examines various phenomena within the noun phrase to locate functional elements associated with the nominal phrase in Hindi. In particular, it studies the genitive construction, agreement within the nominal phrase, the (in)definiteness feature of the nominal, the respective positions of the different prenominal elements, and the focus- and topic-related movement within the Hindi nominal phrase. The investigation of these issues presents evidence for clause-like features within the nominal phrase showing a structural parallelism between a nominal phrase and a clause. For instance, the syntax of the genitive construction gives evidence for a subject-like position within the nominal phrase that necessitates positing a determiner phrase projection to account for the genitive case of the subject nominal. However, the discussion on the agreement pattern within the nominal phrase in Hindi shows that the genitive case is not associated with the agreement. The discussion on the (in)definiteness marking system in Hindi shows that Hindi does not have a well-defined definiteness marking mechanism in its nominal system. It shows the lack of a single (in)definiteness marking element within the nominal phrase. Thus a set of devices are resorted to in order to mark (in)definiteness of a noun in Hindi, including extra-grammatical devices. However, the discussion shows that the presence or absence of a definite determiner is not the sole criterion for positing a determiner phrase projection within the nominal phrase. I show that nominals are universally assigned a D(determiner) feature. The requirement of feature checking necessitates positing a determiner projection within the nominal phrase. Besides the evidence from the genitive constructions, the occurrence of a universal D-feature in the nominal system constitutes the main criterion for positing a determiner phrase projection within the Hindi nominal phrase. I examine the position of the demonstrative and certain movement phenomena associated with it. I argue that the focus-like interpretation of the demonstrative element, particularly when it occurs before the genitive nominal, presents evidence for the occurrence of a focus projection within the nominal phrase in Hindi. On this basis, I propose a FocP (Focus Phrase) below the DP (Determiner Phrase) projection within the Hindi nominal. The placement of adjectives within the nominal phrase is another basis for positing a FocP within the Hindi nominal phrase. I show that adjectives in Hindi can occur before the quantifier elements only when they are marked for focus interpretation. I examine the role of -wala (and also -sa) as the contrastive focus marking suffixes with respect to adjectives in Hindi to support the argument. I examine the case of (left) fronting of the different prenominal constituents (as well as the head noun itself) within the nominal phrase in Hindi and show that they are amenable to an analysis according to which they are treated as topic-related movement. I propose on the basis a TopP (Topic Phrase) within the DP in Hindi as the uppermost functional projection. I also argue for a KP (Case Phrase) projection as a functional projection within the Hindi nominal phrase. I show that for the checking of the case feature on the prenominal elements (as well as the oblique case feature of the head noun) the whole DP needs to undergo a movement to the Spec(ifier) of KP. Further I discuss the structure of the relative clause constructions in Hindi. I follow the proposal in Kayne (1994) to account for the different positions of the occurrence of the relative clause within the determiner phrase in Hindi. I examines the structure of gerunds in chapter four. I argue that the determiner phrase analysis of gerund constructions accounts for their mixed properties by showing that the Hindi gerund is a nominal phrase headed by a nominal functional element D. At the same time, gerunds also contain a verbal projection in their internal structure, which accounts for their mixed properties. I discuss both the verbal and the nominal properties of the gerund constructions in Hindi. The verbal properties include the existence of argument structure as well as an aspectual feature associated with the root verb from which the gerund is derived. I argue on this basis for an AspP (Aspect Phrase) within the structure of the Hindi gerund. A brief concluding statement is presented in chapter five.