-D-

Declarative sentence
SEMANTICS: a sentence to which a °truth value can be assigned, given a certain situation or circumstance. EXAMPLE: (i) is a declarative sentence because we can assign it a truth value (e.g., in the actual world sentence (i) is not true).

(i) The Queen of Holland is bald

Declension/Declensional class
MORPHOLOGY: a traditional term indicating that nouns can be classified according to the shape of the inflectional endings they may take. See also °conjugational class. EXAMPLE: Classical Greek provides a clear case of a declensional system. Noun stems (and adjective stems) in Greek inflect for case and number. In one declensional class a noun stem consists of a root morpheme followed by the declensional marker -a-, and in a second declensional class, the nominal root is followed by the declensional marker -o-.

 	  First Declension   Second Declension

        Feminine   Masculine Masc/Fem. Neuter

nom.sg.	khóoraa    tamíaas   lógos    dôoron
acc.sg.	khóoraan   tamíaan   lógon    dôoron
gen.sg.	khóoraas   tamíou    lógou    dôorou
dat.sg.	khóoraay   tamíaay   logóoy   dôorooy
nom.pl.	khôoray    tamíay    lógoy    dôora
acc.pl.	khóoraas   tamíaas   lógous   dôora
gen.pl.	khoorôon   tamiôon   lógôon   dóoroon
dat.pl.	khóorays   tamíays   lógoys   dóoroys

        'land'     'steward' 'word'   'house'

Decomposition (of word meaning)
°Componential analysis

Deep-Structure
SYNTAX: underlying structure, which is generated by the °base component. The term 'deep structure' is avoided in recent literature and replaced by °D-structure, or d-structure.

Defective paradigm
MORPHOLOGY: the situation where some (regular) inflectional forms of a lexical category are missing in a number of words. EXAMPLE: Dutch has a class of compound verbs (such as wielrennen (lit. wheelrun) 'bicycling') of which only the infinitive (wielrennen) and the past participle (gewielrend) are used, while other inflected forms are hardly used (*hij wielrent or *hij rent wiel 'he is bicycling') . These compound verbs have a defective paradigm.

Definite article
°Determiner.

Definite description
SEMANTICS: a definite noun phrase which is used to refer to exactly one individual. EXAMPLE: the king of France in (i) is a definite description that can only be properly used if France has one and only one king:

(i)  The king of France is bald

(ii) a	There is at least one king of France, and
     b	He is the only king of France, and
     c	He is bald

Definiteness effect
°Definiteness restriction.

Definiteness restriction
SYNTAX/SEMANTICS: the restriction that the subject of a sentence beginning with °expletive there, must be an indefinite noun phrase, or in Milsark's (1977) terms, a °weak noun phrase. The definiteness restriction is shown by the contrast between (i) and (ii): the °strong noun phrases in (i) are not compatible with expletive there.

(i)   a	*There is John/the man/every man in the room
      b	*There are they/the people/most people in the room
(ii)  a	 There is a man/one man in the room
      b	 There are men/two men/many men in the room

Defooting
°Destressing.

Deictic pronoun
SYNTAX/SEMANTICS: a pronoun whose reference must be fixed through the context of the utterance. EXAMPLE: the purported referents of you and me in you will get to know me better are the speaker and the addressee(s) of this utterance. Deictic pronouns are often opposed to °anaphoric pronouns. °Deixis.

Deixis
The phenomenon that elements in a language may have a reference which is dependent on the immediate context of their utterance. EXAMPLE: personal pronouns (I, you, he, etc.), demonstratives (this, that, etc.), spatial expressions like here and there, temporal expressions like yesterday and now, and tense (past, present) are deictic expressions. Another word for deixis is indexicality.

Deletion
SYNTAX: erasing (at least) the phonological features of an element in a representation. In early versions of generative grammar, deletion was constrained by the principle of °recoverability. In current work, recoverability is partly captured by the °ECP. Deletion counts as a possible instantiation of °affect_alpha. EXAMPLE: °complementizer deletion (I know [that] he comes) may be an instance of deletion subject to the ECP.
LIT. Van Riemsdijk & Williams (1986).

Deletion in COMP
°Complementizer deletion.

Demonstratives
°Deixis.

Demotion
MORPHOLOGY/SYNTAX: the phenomenon that a subject (or °external argument) becomes an optional °oblique phrase or °adjunct due to some morphological or syntactic operation. EXAMPLE: if we form the passive of break (= broken), the subject (or external argument) is demoted to become an adjunct (= the by-phrase):

(i)  Tom broke the vase
(ii) The vase was broken (by Tom)

Denotation
SEMANTICS: the denotation of an expression (a word, phrase or sentence) is the thing to which that expression refers. The denotation of the proper name Julius Caesar is the person with that name; the denotation of the common noun horse is the set of horses, etc. The term denotation (or denotatum) is roughly synonymous with the terms °extension and °reference, although these terms have acquired more specific content in particular frameworks. The term denotation is sometimes used in opposition to the term °connotation to indicate that we abstract away from emotional and sociocultural aspects of meaning, restricting ourselves to what an expression refers to.

Denotational theory
°Meaning theories.

Denotatum
°Denotation.

Dental
PHONOLOGY: articulation of consonants which involves the tongue tip or blade and the upper front teeth. The vocal tract is narrowed or closed. EXAMPLE: In the production of the Dutch /n/, the tongue tip is raised towards the upper front teeth.

Derivation
MORPHOLOGY: one of the major types of morphological operation by which new words are formed by adding an affix to a °base. EXAMPLE: from the English verb institute it is possible to form the noun institution by suffixation of -ion. From this, one can form the adjective institutional by adding the suffix -al, and to this word one can add the verbalizing suffix -ize yielding institutionalize. Derivation typically, but not necessarily, induces a change in lexical category. Traditionally derivation is distinguished from °inflection (the second type of major morphological operation). Although it is not possible to draw a sharp line dividing the two types of operation, there are at least two differences: (i) inflection is never category changing, while derivation typically is, and (ii) inflection is usually peripheral to derivation. Some linguists (e.g. Aronoff (1976), Anderson (1982), Perlmutter (1988)) assume that derivation and inflection belong to different components of the grammar. Others (e.g. Halle (1973), Kiparsky (1982)) assume that derivation and inflection are reflexes of one and the same operation, namely affixation.
SYNTAX: either the process or the product of applying a set of grammatical rules to a given input. EXAMPLE: °S-structure is derived from °D-structure by the application of the appropriate instances of °affect alpha. Sometimes the notion 'derivation' is used to refer to the set of representations that the grammar associates with a particular utterance, and is equivalent to the notion of a 'grammatical description'.
LIT. Chomsky (1965).
PHONOLOGY: either the process or the product of applying a set of phonological rules to an underlying form. EXAMPLE: in Dutch we may apply auslautverhaertung, degemination and regressive voicing assimilation in that order to the underlying form [hand][duk], resulting in the form [handuk]. Both the application of these rules and the resulting surface form may be referred to with 'derivation'.

Designated terminal element
PHONOLOGY: in a tree the designated terminal element (DTE) is that terminal element in a given constituent that is exclusively dominated by strong nodes; it is the most prominent element of a given constituent. EXAMPLE: in the English word achromatic the syllable -ma- is the designated terminal element:

	   / \
	  w   s
 	 / \  /\
	s   w s w
	achromatic

Destressing
PHONOLOGY: a type of rule which deletes either a stress or the constituent of which this stress is the head (i.e. a °foot). The footless syllable(s) undergo(es) °stray adjunction. Destressing rules adjust the representation assigned by °stress assignment rules. EXAMPLE: in English a stress on a °light syllable (i.e. a foot) assigned by the stress rules is removed by a destressing rule: /bànána/ --> /banána/. The application of the destressing rule explains that the vowel of the first syllable can reduce (cf. [b@nána]), whereas this is not allowed in /bàndána/ -/-> *[b@ndána] which has a °heavy syllable.
LIT. Hayes (1981)), Hammond (1984), Kager (1989).

Determiner
SYNTAX: term for any kind of (mostly) non-lexical element preceding a noun in a noun phrase. EXAMPLE: the, that, two, a, many, all, etc. A distinction is made between definite and indefinite determiners. Intuitively, a definite determiner makes the reference of the noun phrase it 'determines' definite, whereas an indefinite determiner does not. The class of definite determiners is taken to include the definite article the, demonstratives (this, those, etc.), possessives (his, John's), question words (which), and quantifiers (all, etc.) The indefinite article a(n) and numerals like two, many, etc. are examples of indefinite determiners. Recently, determiners have been analyzed as functional heads D (°DP).
SEMANTICS: a relation between two sets taken as the denotation of a determiner in the theory of °Generalized Quantifiers. EXAMPLE: in a sentence like All boys walk, the determiner all is interpreted as the inclusion-relation between the set of boys and the set of things that walk. More generally, in a structure [S [NP Det CN ] VP ], the determiner Det is interpreted as a relation D_E(A,B) on the domain of entities E, relating the °extension A of the CN and the extension B of the VP.
LIT. Barwise & Cooper (1981), Keenan & Stavi (1986), Gamut (1991).

Diacritic feature
MORPHOLOGY: a formal expression of unpredictable information about words in their lexical entry. EXAMPLE: many non-native English verbs may undergo -ation and/or -al affixation (recite: recital: recitation). However, the verbs arrive and derive do not allow the derivation of *arrivation and *derival, respectively. Halle (1973) accounts for these °accidental gaps by assigning the diacritic feature [-lexical insertion] to these forms. Other widely used diacritic features are [+/- latinate] or [+/- native] (e.g. Aronoff 1976). Another term is exception feature.
LIT. Chomsky & Halle (1968), Halle (1973), Aronoff (1976), Spencer (1991).

Diminutive
MORPHOLOGY: a term for a special type of nouns the meaning of which can be characterized as SMALL N (where N is the predicate denoted by the noun). EXAMPLE: Dutch diminutives are formed by adding one of the °allomorphs of the suffix -tje (viz. -pje, -kje, -etje, -je, -tje) to nouns. (i) gives a number of relevant examples:

(i) raam	'window'	raam-pje	'small window'
    koning	'king'		koning-kje	'small king'
    pan		'pan'		pann-etje	'small pan'
    hok		'cage'		hok-je		'small cage'
    baan	'job'		baan-tje	'small job'

Diphthong
PHONOLOGY: a vowel whose quality changes during the production. EXAMPLE: in pronouncing English pie the tongue is low and front at first, but it ends up in a high front position. In Dutch, the words ei 'egg', au 'ouch', and ui 'onion' consist of diphthongs.
LIT. Katamba (1989), Zonneveld & Trommelen (1980).

Diphthongization
PHONOLOGY: a phonological rule involving a change from a °monophtong to a °dipthong. EXAMPLE: Middle Dutch biten (with monophthongal [i]) becomes Modern Dutch bijten `to bite' (with diphthongal [ei], spelled ij).

Discontinuous affix
°Circumfix.

Discontinuous constituent
°Constituent whose constituting elements are somehow separated. EXAMPLE: the sentences in (i) and (ii) contain constituents which are discontinuous in the a-sentences, but not in the b-sentences.

(i)  a  wat heeft hij [ - voor boeken] gekocht ?
        what has he [ - for books ] bought?
        'what type of books did he buy?'
     b  [wat voor boeken] heeft hij gekocht ?
(ii) a  hij heeft [een boek - ] gekocht met een harde kaft
	he has [a book - ] bought with a hard cover
	'he bought a book with a hard cover'
     b  hij heeft [een boek met een harde kaft] gekocht

Disjoint reference

SYNTAX: disjoint reference is what obtains if two elements refer to different entities. EXAMPLE: in (i)a the reference of she and her is disjoint, and in (i)b that of she and them.

(i) a  She likes her
    b  She likes them

Disjunction
SEMANTICS: the combination of two sentences with or. In °propositional logic, the disjunction of two formulas phi and psi, written phi v psi, is true if phi is true or psi is true or both, as is shown in the truth-table (i):

(i)  phi		psi	phi v psi
      1			 1	    1
      1			 0	    1
      0			 1	    1
      0			 0	    0

Disjunctive ordering
PHONOLOGY: type of rule interaction, introduced by Chomsky & Halle (1968). Two rules A and B are ordered disjunctively if rule B may not be applied to the output of rule A, even if the output of rule A satisfies the structural description of rule B. See also °parenthesis notation. EXAMPLE: rule (a) and (b) are two rules among the stress rules of English:

a	V ->	    V    / ____C_0VC0
		     [+stress]
b	V ->	    V    / ____C0
		     [+stress]

Distributive predicate
SEMANTICS: a predicate that can only apply to individuals. When applied to plural noun phrases, it 'distributes' over the members of the plurality. EXAMPLE: in The boys were tall, the tallness is not ascribed to the group of boys as a whole, but only to the individual members. The opposite of a distributive predicate is a °collective predicate.
LIT. Link (1983).

Domain
SYNTAX: (minimalist theory) the domain of a head A is the set of nodes contained in MAX(A) that are distinct from and do not contain A. EXAMPLE: in (i) the domain of X (a head) is the set of nodes ZP, YP, and WP. XP₂, XP_i, X' and X are not included in the domain of X, since each of XP₂, XP₁ and X' contain X, and X is not distinct from X.

(i)		XP2
		/  \	
	      ZP    XP1
		   /  \
		 YP    X'
		      /  \
		     X	  WP

Domain of discourse
°Universe of discourse.

Dominance
SYNTAX: dominance is a binary relation between nodes in a °tree structure which can be defined as follows:

(i) Node A dominates node B iff A is higher up the tree than B such that you 
    can trace a line from A to B going only downwards

 - irreflexivity:	a node does not dominate itself
 - asymmetry:		if A dominates B, B does not dominate A
 - transitivity:	if A dominates B, and B dominates C, then A dominates C

(ii)		 A
	        / \
	       /   \
	      B	    C
	     / \   / \
            D	E F   G

	(iii) A is dominated by B iff A is dominated by every segment of B

(iv)		XP2
	       /|
	      /	|
	  ZPi	XP1
		|
		X'
		|\	
		| \
		X  YP
		   |
		   Y'	
		   |\
		   | \
		   Y  ZP
		      |	
		      ti

(v) Exclusion
    B excludes A if no segment of B dominates A

Dominate
°Dominance.

Donkey anaphora
SYNTAX/SEMANTICS: type of anaphoric relation obtaining in a range of constructions that apparently preclude straightforward bound variable anaphora or coreference. In (i):

(i)  every farmer who owns a donkey beats it

(ii) All" <x,y> (x owns donkey y) (x beats y) 

(iii) a	 if a man comes in here, he will trip the switch
      b	 every farmer owns some donkeys and feeds them at night

Dorsal
°Velar.

Double object construction
SYNTAX: construction containing two objects, as in (i).

(i) Jason bought Carol a new car

Doubly-filled COMP Filter
SYNTAX: filter which excludes the co-occurrence of a wh-phrase and a complementizer in a COMP-position, as in (i).

(i) I wonder who (*that/*whether) she saw

Downward monotonicity
SEMANTICS: a property of a °determiner D(A,B). A determiner D can be downward monotone with respect to its left argument (A) or its right argument (B). It is left downward monotone (or left monotone decreasing or antipersistent) if a true sentence of the form [_S [_NP D CN] VP] entails the truth of [_S [_NP D CN'] VP] where CN' denotes a subset of the set denoted by CN. EXAMPLE: the D at most two is left downward monotone:

(i)  If at most two animals walked, then at most two dogs walked.

(ii) If at most two dogs walked, then at most two dogs walked in the garden.

DP
SYNTAX: Determiner Phrase. °Functional projection of a °determiner, D⁰. In general, D⁰ selects an NP as its complement:

(i) [DP [D' D0 NP]]

D-structure
SYNTAX: that level of representation which is completely determined by lexical information, °Theta theory, the °Projection Principle, and °X-bar theory, and which is input to the transformational component ( °affect alpha) which derives °S-Structure (°T-model). Abandoned in Chomsky (1992).
LIT. Chomsky (1981, 1992).

Dual
SEMANTICS: the dual Q^* of a °generalized quantifier Q can be made by taking both the external negation and the internal negation of Q, i.e.:

(i)   Q^* = Neg Q Neg

(ii)  Q^* = { X subset E : (E  X) not in Q }

(iii) a  All dogs bark <->
      b  It is not the case that some dogs do not bark

Durative aspect
°Aspectual classes.

Dvanda compound
MORPHOLOGY: a term used for a type of compound in which there is a simple conjunction of two words, without any further dependency holding between them. Examples are Bosnia-Herzegovina, mother-child, and possibly, player-coach.