Universal #1603

Legacy number: 1603

 Number  1599
 Original  Every language has N’s and NPs of the type e → t (common nouns as predicates).
 Standardized  Every language has N’s and NPs of the type e → t (common nouns as predicates).
 Keywords  quantification, NP, DP, semantic type
 Domain  syntax, semantics
 Type  unconditional
 Status  achronic
 Quality  absolute
 Basis  unspecified
 Source  Partee 2000: 5

← Back to Universals Archive

Discussion
Notes
1. “Partee 1987 proposed the basic DP types e (‘referential’), <e,t> (‘predicative’) and <<e,t>,t> (‘quantificational’) for English. [...] DP’s in English are indeed associated with these three types. But there is growing evidence that in some languages NP’s or DP’s might only be associated with one or two of these types” (Partee 2000: 5). 2. Against the NP-Quantifier Universal (#1203) of Barwise & Cooper’s 1981, which argues that all NPs, cross-linguistically, are of <<e,t>,t> type, i.e. quantificational (accepting the Montague´s proposal that for each syntactic istances of a DP there is only one sematic type, namely the quantifier type <<e,t>,t>), Partee claims the need to distinguish N and NP (common noun phrase) on the one hand, and DP (determiner phrase) on the other hand, and to find out, also in a typological perspective, their default semantic type (##1603, 1604).3. Default type assignments for NP, DP are: (a) NP: <e,t> (common noun phrase); (b) DP: e (referential DPs) and <<e,t>,t> (DPs as generalized quantifiers, à la Montague).
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
1. "Partee 1987 proposed the basic DP types e ('referential'), <e,t> ('predicative') and <<e,t>,t> ('quantificational') for English. [...] DP's in English are indeed associated with these three types. But there is growing evidence that in some languages NP's or DP's might only be associated with one or two of these types" (Partee 2000: 5).

2. Against the NP-Quantifier Universal (<a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=1203"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">) of Barwise & Cooper's 1981, which argues that all NPs, cross-linguistically, are of <<e,t>,t> type, i.e. quantificational (accepting the Montague«s proposal that for each syntactic istances of a DP there is only one sematic type, namely the quantifier type < <e,t>,t>), Partee claims the need to distinguish N and NP (common noun phrase) on the one hand, and DP (determiner phrase) on the other hand, and to find out, also in a typological perspective, their default semantic type (<a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=1603"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">, <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=1604"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">).

3. Default type assignments for NP, DP are: (a) NP: <e,t> (common noun phrase); (b) DP: e (referential DPs) and <<e,t>,t> (DPs as generalized quantifiers, à la Montague).