Nominal Modifiers in Kana
Keywords:
Kana, modifiers, noun phrase, grammatical structure and head nounAbstract
The paper analyzed nominal modifiers in Kana within a formal linguistic framework. The paper identified ten discrete nominal modifiers in the grammatical structure of Kana. The paper found that pre-head and post-head modification are attested in the grammar of Kana as seven of the modifiers occur before the head noun while three occur after the head noun in the grammatical structure of the noun phrase. The paper reported that there is no distinction between mass and count nouns in the use of quantifiers in Kana. The paper noted that there can be no intervening element between the prepositional phrase modifier and the head noun. The study also showed that the demonstrative can only co-occur with the head noun in the maximal projection of the noun phrase in mutually exclusive distribution with the prepositional phrase, and noted that the numeral modifier does not participate in the maximal expansion of the NP. The paper therefore recommended a detailed investigation of numerals and numeracy in Kana in order to ascertain the structural status of the numeral element in Kana.
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