The Structure of noun Phrase Complements in khamtanga
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Date
1989-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Th;~ study analyzes the ~itn'ctUl·e .;f noun plwase complements in
I<hamtanga. It j,' stated 'n Jackendoff l/Sn) t l-.'t various phrases and
clauses can func tion as cOII,plemenls 111 a -,oun phrase. These compiements
O'.;cur at different levels of proj£:cilOn by phl"ilse structure (PS) rules.
Following the prindples and parameteres approach of Government and
Binding theory as developed in Chomsky (1981 J and recent works, the
present study shows that PS rUleS are flot needed to account fo'· the
projection of NP ccmpiements. It is clai.mlld that the relationship of
complements witl) a head noun Can be eXIJla;"ed by independently motivated
principles of Universal Grammar (UG).
The fir st chapter deals With some lInportdnt theo.'etical issues regarding
the mode l of gl'ammar. The majo r daim is that PS rules create a
redundancy which cannot be maintained in a restricted model of grammar,
The second chapte~ presents the analysis of phrasal complements.
Because of the productive function of the genitive cons truction in the
language, the most frequent phrasal complement is the genitive NP.
The third chapter investigates the most common clausal complement
in NPs, i.e. the relative C\Ause. It is argued th<:t forms that formally
resemble the relative construction can be quite different functionally.
In the fourth chapter the rest Yiction that IS imposed upon the order
of complements is discussed. It is shown that ordering restriction can
be explained independently without resorting to PS rules of particular
grammars.
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Keywords
noun Phrase Complements