Jackendoff R
Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02254-9110.
Cognition. 1991 Dec;41(1-3):9-45. doi: 10.1016/0010-0277(91)90031-x.
Within the framework of Conceptual Semantics, a family of conceptual features and functions is developed that accounts for phenomena in the semantics of noun phrases such as the mass-count distinction, plurality, the partitive construction (a leg of the table), the constitutive construction (a house of wood), the "Universal Packager" (three coffees), and boundary words such as end, edge, and crust. Using the strong formal parallelism between noun phrase semantics and event structure that is a hallmark of the Conceptual Semantics approach, the features and functions of the NP system are applied to a wide range of problems in event structure, for example the analysis of the Vendler classes, the meaning of the progressive, the "imperfective paradox", and "aktionsarten" such as the syntactically unexpressed sense of repetition in The light flashed until dawn. Crucial to the analysis is that these features and functions can be expressed in syntactic structure either by being part of lexical conceptual structure, or by use of a morphological affix, or by being associated with the meaning of a construction such as N of NP or nominal compounding. Alternatively, they may remain unexpressed altogether, being introduced into the conceptual structure of a phrase by "rules of construal". This shows that lexical semantics and phrasal semantics interpenetrate deeply, and that there is no strict one-to-one correspondence between syntactic and semantic structures. In addition, the analysis provides further evidence that natural language semantics must be based on a psychological view of meaning--it must be concerned with how language users are constructed to understand and schematize the world.
在概念语义学的框架内，发展出了一系列概念特征和功能，用于解释名词短语语义中的各种现象，如物质-可数区分、复数、部分itive结构（桌子的一条腿）、构成结构（木制的房子）、“通用打包器”（三杯咖啡）以及诸如末端、边缘和外壳等边界词。利用名词短语语义和事件结构之间强大的形式平行性（这是概念语义学方法的一个标志），NP系统的特征和功能被应用于事件结构中的一系列广泛问题，例如对Vendler类别的分析、进行体的意义、“未完成体悖论”以及诸如“灯光闪烁直到黎明”中句法上未表达的重复意义等“动词类型”。分析的关键在于，这些特征和功能可以通过以下方式在句法结构中表达：作为词汇概念结构的一部分、通过使用形态词缀、或者与诸如NP的N或名词复合等结构的意义相关联。或者，它们可能完全不被表达，而是通过“解释规则”被引入到短语的概念结构中。这表明词汇语义和短语语义相互深度渗透，并且句法和语义结构之间不存在严格的一一对应关系。此外，该分析进一步证明，自然语言语义必须基于意义的心理学观点——它必须关注语言使用者如何构建以理解和构建世界。
