Anonymous Posted 21 years ago
Linguistics Studies
Nominals - lexical vs. syntactic
Hi
I'm doing my masters degree in English and I have a question I hope someone can help me with. I have an assignment in which I have been given a text. In this text I have to identify the post-head dependents in the nominals used in the text. In connection with this I have to explain how these nominals are related to the head in terms of the lexical vs. syntactic distinction. And this is where I run into trouble. I mean, as I have understood it, a lexical nominal is basically something (a phrase) that I can look up in the dictionary; but what about syntactic - Aren't all phrases bound by syntax to some extent.
So, I guess my question is this: How would you define "the lexical vs. syntactic distinction"? In my paper, I conclude that in a phrase like "Prisoner of war" the post-head dependent is related lexically to the head, while the post-head dependent in a phrase like "a prosecutor in Boston" is syntactically related to the head - but it is still quite unclear to me.
I hope you can help. Thanks in advance.
Uni
I'm doing my masters degree in English and I have a question I hope someone can help me with. I have an assignment in which I have been given a text. In this text I have to identify the post-head dependents in the nominals used in the text. In connection with this I have to explain how these nominals are related to the head in terms of the lexical vs. syntactic distinction. And this is where I run into trouble. I mean, as I have understood it, a lexical nominal is basically something (a phrase) that I can look up in the dictionary; but what about syntactic - Aren't all phrases bound by syntax to some extent.
So, I guess my question is this: How would you define "the lexical vs. syntactic distinction"? In my paper, I conclude that in a phrase like "Prisoner of war" the post-head dependent is related lexically to the head, while the post-head dependent in a phrase like "a prosecutor in Boston" is syntactically related to the head - but it is still quite unclear to me.
I hope you can help. Thanks in advance.
Uni
Top answer
sorry, but i don't think you'll find a neat notional definition. there are clues for distinguishing them though. their intonation, for one.
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sorry, but i don't think you'll find a neat notional definition. there are clues for distinguishing them though.
their intonation, for one. in 'a prosecutor in boston' the stress is on 'prosecutor', the head. in 'prisoner of war' the primary stress is on 'war'.
if you take 'prisoner of war' as a lexeme - as you say, roughly corresponding to headwords of dictionaries -
their intonation, for one. in 'a prosecutor in boston' the stress is on 'prosecutor', the head. in 'prisoner of war' the primary stress is on 'war'.
if you take 'prisoner of war' as a lexeme - as you say, roughly corresponding to headwords of dictionaries -
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