Structure of Noun Phrases-Left or Right?

Abstract

本文建基於李艷惠（2013）對【數+量+(的+)名】的分析，提出【數+量+ (的+)名】的語法結構是由它們不同的語義功用來決定的。當數+量具修飾功用，描述名詞的性質時(性質義), 數+量就像一般名詞前的修飾語如關係子句，數詞和量詞形成一個結構單位來修飾右邊的名詞(向左分支結構)。其他情況(個體義和數量義)則都是向右分支結構。性質義結構中的“的”一定得出現，就像其他修飾結構應該要有這個修飾記號一樣。而且同其他修飾結構一樣，性質義中的“的”可以允許右邊的名詞省略。數量義的“的”則是語音上爲了顯示焦點而嵌入的。如果名詞不存在，就沒有嵌入的必要，因此結果是數量義的“的”看似不允許名詞省略。本文所提向右分支結構涵蓋所有的量詞，不拘量詞的類別。然而文獻上有的分析依量詞類別區分向右或向左分支結構，甚或採取一致性的向左分支結構。本文指出支持向左分支結構的語料實際上也可由向右分支結構來解釋，甚至有些看似支持向左分支結構的語料其實更正確的分析應該是支持向右分支結構的。

This paper builds on Y.-H. A. Li (2013) and claims that different structures for [Num + Cl (+de) + NP] should be recognized - left-branching structures for the constructions with Num+Cl functioning like modifiers (relative clauses) describing the properties of the following NPs (property-reading in Y.-H. A. Li 2013) and right-branching structures for the others (entity-reading and quantity-reading in Y.-H. A. Li 2013). The property-reading construction requires de to be base-generated between the modifying phrase and the modified NP. De is part of the grammatical structure and licenses NP-ellipsis. If de appears in the quantity-reading construction, it is the result of phonological insertion and does not affect the grammatical structure or license NP-ellipsis. The structures in question are as stated regardless of the types of classifiers. It is the interpretation or function of Num+Cl that determines the grammatical structure, rather than the type of classifiers. The presence of de cannot be the criterion for determining structures, either, because different types of de need to be recognized. There have been challenges raised in the literature against consistent right-branching structures for non-property reading constructions [Num + Cl (+de) + NP]. It will be shown that these challenges either do not really exist or actually favor the analysis advocated in this work.