Relational Nouns and Reciprocal Plurality

Relational Nouns as Anaphors

This paper examines the syntactic and semantic properties of a set of nouns recently called "Relational Nouns" like mother, neighbor, etc. Relational nouns denote relations between individuals, rather than sets of individuals regular nouns denote, and are referentially dependent on individual-denoting expressions. In Japanese relational nouns may appear 'bare' with no genitive possessors in the...

48. Possessives and relational nouns

This article concentrates on nominal possessives (John’s friend) rather than on verbal possessives (John has a friend). In John’s friend, John is the possessor, and friend describes the entity possessed (the possessee). Nominal possessives constitute a major construction type in the languages of the world. In contrast with a sortal noun (e.g., person), friend is a (two-place) relational noun: a...

Atomic Mass Nouns: Unity, Plurality and Semantic Flexibility*

Atomic mass nouns share morphosyntactic properties with prototypical mass nouns. At the same time, the former semantically deviate from the latter. Based on re-examined empirical data, I propose that the semantics of atomic mass nouns is flexible. Particularly, a semantic shift occurs when the default interpretation of an atomic mass noun results in implausible interpretation or ungrammaticality.

45. Possessives and Relational Nouns

Generalized Conjunction and Relational Nouns

Generalized conjunction and relational nouns. I will analyze the behavior of relational nouns in conjoined contexts. In most of the examples I address the coordination of nominal categories. ◊ Some of the cases such as husband and wife are problematic for the current theories of conjunction (Winter 2001, Heycock&Zamparelli 2005) ◊ I will analyze those and highlight some connections to the analy...