Professor Shi Dingxu, the chair professor and head of Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, presents a talk on the internal structure of nominal phrases under the invitation of the National Key Research Center for Linguistics and Applied Linguistics on Mar. 29, 2013.

Prof. Shi first introduces the previous syntactic studies on the nominal phrase. It has been widely accepted that there are four projections, namely, DP, NumP, ClP and NP, in the hierarchical structure of nominal phrases (Li 1999, Cheng and Sybesma 1999, 2005), while Prof. Shi argues that numerals and classifiers are compounds rather than separate projections. Prof. Shi presents a considerable amount of linguistic facts to support his claim. According to Shi (1999.et seq.) that words can only modify words and phrases can only combine with phrases, Prof. Shi suggests that bare modifiers are words andDEphrases are phrases since (i) bare modifiers need to be adjacent to the modified words, whereasDEphrases do not; (ii) bare modifiers can appear in between numerals and classifiers, butDEphrases cannot.

Prof. Shi further argues that the distinction made between massifiers and classifiers in terms ofDEinsertion is not reliable. Specifically, he suggests that Num-ClP, be it massifiers or classifiers in it, allow the attachment ofDEas a modification marker. In his opinion, the modification phrase Num-ClP-de is used to denote the property or amount of the nominal. At last, Prof. Shi proposes that the structureZhangsan tamen na sange langutou“Zhangsan those three lazy guys’ is an appositive phrase consisting of two independent DPs other than one single DP.

Prof. Shi also demonstrates his view on research methodology that meaning is the basis for grammatical analysis, namely, the key to grammatical analysis depends greatly on native speakers’ intuition and interpretation. Undoubtedly, this talk is a great inspiration for the participants to carry out future research.