The syntactic structure of noun phrases in Indonesian
| dc.contributor.author | Loewen, Gina | |
| dc.contributor.examiningcommittee | MacDonald, Lorna (Linguistics) Kayama, Yuhko (Asian Studies) | en_US |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Ghomeshi, Jila (Linguistics) | en_US |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2011-09-10T15:14:38Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2011-09-10T15:14:38Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2011-09-10 | |
| dc.degree.discipline | Linguistics | en_US |
| dc.degree.level | Master of Arts (M.A.) | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | Recent developments in linguistic theory carried out within the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995; Adger 2003;) provide a functional and concrete framework for an analysis of noun phrases in the Indonesian language, a Western-Malayo Polynesian sub-branch of the Austronesian language family. An analysis of Indonesian noun phrase structure within this framework demonstrates that the head noun occurs in a base-generated position, at the bottom of a DP, while pre- and post-nominal modifiers are contained within a number of additional projections that merge above the head noun. In this thesis, the proposal is made for a relatively unrestricted adjunction analysis, whereby head adjunction via Merge allows for the direct expansion of the head N at various levels of the Indonesian DP. Evidence is presented to show that the adjoined status of attributive nouns and adjectives, a plural feature [PL], and the feature [DEF] generates a complex hierarchical structure in which there is no predefined order between a specifier or complement and the head noun. In addition, it is argued that bare nouns are neutral with respect to number and, given that number-marking, possession and (in)definiteness are optional, all projections that merge above the head N are optional and context is needed to accurately interpret an Indonesian bare noun. | en_US |
| dc.description.note | October 2011 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1993/4876 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | en_US |
| dc.rights | open access | en_US |
| dc.subject | syntax | en_US |
| dc.subject | Minimalism | en_US |
| dc.subject | noun phrase | en_US |
| dc.subject | merge | en_US |
| dc.subject | adjoin | en_US |
| dc.subject | Indonesian | en_US |
| dc.subject | feature | en_US |
| dc.title | The syntactic structure of noun phrases in Indonesian | en_US |
| dc.type | master thesis | en_US |