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Agreement and definiteness in Germanic DPs

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Abstract

Across a variety of languages, the morphological expression of definiteness and agreement within the noun phrase appears incompatible with the semantic import of these features. Accounts in the literature have responded to this challenge by positing mechanisms such as feature regulation and post-syntactic movement. Focusing on DPs in Germanic languages, we will explore a different perspective, one in which the relevant features are subject to a scopal licensing condition, and where the licensors are subject to a condition of structural economy.

Abstract

Across a variety of languages, the morphological expression of definiteness and agreement within the noun phrase appears incompatible with the semantic import of these features. Accounts in the literature have responded to this challenge by positing mechanisms such as feature regulation and post-syntactic movement. Focusing on DPs in Germanic languages, we will explore a different perspective, one in which the relevant features are subject to a scopal licensing condition, and where the licensors are subject to a condition of structural economy.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. List of contributors ix
  4. List of abbreviations xi
  5. List of figures xiii
  6. Editors' note xv
  7. Preface xvii
  8. Introduction 1
  9. The overgeneration problem and the case of semipredicatives in Russian 13
  10. Polish equatives as symmetrical structures 61
  11. Syntactic (dis)agreement is not semantic agreement 95
  12. A Note on Oblique Case: Evidence from Serbian / Croatian 117
  13. The structure of null subject DPs and agreement in Polish impersonal constructions 129
  14. The feature geometry of generic inclusive null DPs in Hungarian 165
  15. Possessives within and beyond NP 193
  16. On pre-nominal classifying adjectives in Polish 221
  17. Determiners and Possessives in Old English and Polish 247
  18. Agreement and definiteness in Germanic DPs 267
  19. Transparent free relatives 295
  20. Index 319
Advances in the Syntax of DPs
This chapter is in the book Advances in the Syntax of DPs
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.217.11kat

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. List of contributors ix
  4. List of abbreviations xi
  5. List of figures xiii
  6. Editors' note xv
  7. Preface xvii
  8. Introduction 1
  9. The overgeneration problem and the case of semipredicatives in Russian 13
  10. Polish equatives as symmetrical structures 61
  11. Syntactic (dis)agreement is not semantic agreement 95
  12. A Note on Oblique Case: Evidence from Serbian / Croatian 117
  13. The structure of null subject DPs and agreement in Polish impersonal constructions 129
  14. The feature geometry of generic inclusive null DPs in Hungarian 165
  15. Possessives within and beyond NP 193
  16. On pre-nominal classifying adjectives in Polish 221
  17. Determiners and Possessives in Old English and Polish 247
  18. Agreement and definiteness in Germanic DPs 267
  19. Transparent free relatives 295
  20. Index 319
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