Definites and possessives in modern Greek: an HPSG syntax for noun phrases

This work discusses topics in noun phrase syntax, in particular, definite and posses¬ sive constructions. A syntax of nominal categories is provided that complements descrip¬ tions of English-style, determiner-centric nominal systems, by accommodating definite concord phenomena, "determinerless" NPs, and elliptical phrases that lack a noun head. In addition, the syntactic properties and interpretation of possessives are discussed and an account is presented that enables a wide range of interconnected phenomena to be explained in terms of a simple hypothesis, the possessive / pseudo-possessive partition. The data considered herein for the most part come from Modern Greek, nonetheless, the phenomena described are also characteristic of a wide range of languages, including Romance, Scandinavian and Semitic. The noun phrase theory provided is formulated in Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). Much research on the syntax of noun phrases assumes that quantifier determiners and the definite article rend "maximal" (or functionally complete) the noun phrase they make part of. In addition, numerous approaches to elliptical NPs analyse such con¬ structions in terms of empty constituents. It is proposed in this thesis that the definite article should be distinguished from determiners in languages that exhibit definite con¬ cord like Greek. An analysis is provided that associates the definite article with the introduction of uniqueness entailments. In addition, it is argued that "determinerful" or "determinerless", canonical and elliptical nominals are partly unified and their largely common distribution can be accounted for in terms of inheritance. This assumption has important implications for maintaining economy in lexical representation, and enables a syntax of nominal ellipsis to be provided that dispenses with empty heads. This thesis is further concerned with a wide range of Greek genitive NPs in construc¬ tion with relational or non-relational noun heads and demonstrates that they exhibit systematic asymmetries. These include the semantic readings genitives can be associ¬ ated with, their distribution and linear order, their anaphoric potentials and accessibil¬ ity to relativization, aspectual effects and event theory, definiteness and specificity. A partition of Greek genitives is motivated, into possessives and pseudo-possessives, the former referring to entities in the discourse and the latter denoting properties that define the kind of individual or event—in this respect they are reminiscent of non-intersective adjectives. HPSG's multidimensional architecture lends itself well to expressing the mu¬ tual constraints on syntax and interpretation that characterize the two distinct genitive classes. The possessive / pseudo-possessive hypothesis can also be extended to certain Romance languages (e.g. French): pronominalization / relativization asymmetries and word order constraints associated with de phrases in French have been previously dis¬ cussed, nonetheless, without appealing to the semantic differences that characterize such phrases, rather, by assuming a correlation between these asymmetries and grammatical functions or thematic roles. However, such a correlation proves too strong.