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Dan Flickinger and Francis Bond: A Two-Rule Analysis of Measure Noun Phrases
In this paper we present an analysis of English measure noun phrases. Measure
noun phrases exhibit both distributional idiosyncrasy, in that they appear in
positions normally filled by degree adverbs: "a ten inch long string"; and
agreement discord: "ten inches is enough", "it is ten inch/*inches long".
The analysis introduces one idiosyncratic construction, the Measure Phrase
Rule, which links together syntax and inflectional morphology. Combined with
existing rules, in particular the Noun-noun Compound Rule, the new rule
accounts for the both the distributional and agreement idiosyncrasies. The
rule has been implemented and tested in the ERG, a broad-coverage grammar of
English. Our analysis supports the position that broad-coverage grammars
will necessarily contain both highly schematic and highly idiosyncratic
rules.
Maintained by Stefan Müller
Created: October 23, 2003
Last modified: November 24, 2003
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