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