| In contrast to the intensive study of sentences, arguments, and predicates, modifiers have received little attention from generative grammarians. The principle goal of this dissertation is the development of a general syntactic and semantic characterization of modification. I begin with the problem of semantic interpretation: Phrases may serve in modificational and in non-modificational capacities (contrast the modificational and predicative PPs in the man in the room and The man is in the room). In these different positions, such phrases must have compositionally derived translations of different semantic types, which cannot occur if they are truly identical. I argue that the structural equivalence of such phrases is only apparent and that certain properties and behaviors individuate phrases which occupy modificational positions. The theory motivated and developed here is based on the hypothesis that all modifiers consist of a functional shell surrounding a denotational core. More specifically, I propose that all modification involves a functional head, called Mod(ifier) which projects the phrase ModP.; (1) The ModP Hypothesis: Modifiers are of the form: ({dollar}sb{lcub}rm ModP{rcub}{dollar} Mod XP). Mod is shown to be a type-shifter which creates the semantic type of modifiers. In this way, Mod serves a type-shifting function similar to that of C and D. The ModP Hypothesis thus permits complete semantic compositionality by providing a transparent interface between the syntax and semantics of modification.; The ModP Hypothesis also makes possible the solution to a number of syntactic problems, including the occurrence in numerous languages of obligatory "linking" morphemes in modificational structures (compare, for example, Romanian Cutia e pe masa 'The box is on the table' and cutia de pe masa 'the box on the table'). The ModP Hypothesis also allows for a simple characterization of the relationship between adjectives and adverbs, resolving the contradiction otherwise implicit in the theory of lexical categorial features. Lastly, the ModP Hypothesis makes possible a solution to problems of learnability. |
