Linguistic and philosophical approaches to NPN structures
Linguistic and philosophical approaches to NPN structures

Author(s): Wiktor Pskit
Subject(s): Theoretical Linguistics
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: syntax; semantics; nominal expressions; nouns; prepositions; reduplication; doubling; plurality; iteration
Summary/Abstract: This paper is concerned with NPN structures exemplified by day by day or student after student. The analysis of these expressions needs to address a number of challenges, some of which have been tackled in the relevant literature in linguistic (e.g. Pi 1995; Travis 2001, 2003; Jackendoff 2008, Haïk 2013) or philosophical (e.g. Beck & von Stechow 2006, 2007; Zwarts 2013) terms. A particularly problematic aspect of NPN structures is a relation between a kind of formal doubling or reduplication (at least in the case of NPNs with two identical nouns) and semantic plurality or iteration. In more general terms, the nature of the relation between formal (structural) reduplication and semantic iteration bears on the roles of syntax and semantics in the overall architecture of language, an issue of interest for both linguists and philosophers of language. The aim of the discussion is to point out the similarities and differences between the relevant analyses of NPNs and reflect upon possibilities of putting together the findings of linguistic and philosophical accounts. It is concluded that while significant differences between linguistics and philosophy of language obviously remain, the representatives of the two fields can inform one another.

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