Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T02:22:22.686Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A new argument for existence of the DP in languages without articles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2019

DAVID ERSCHLER*
Affiliation:
Ben Gurion University of the Negev
*
Author’s address: Ben Gurion University of the Negev, P.O. Box 653, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel[email protected]

Abstract

In this squib, I provide evidence of a novel type in favor of the existence of the DP in previously undiscussed articleless languages: I show that a comitative preposition in the Ossetic languages cannot attach to nominal expressions that would be analyzed as DPs in better studied languages. On the other hand, nominal expressions that it can attach to are of the kinds that would be analyzed as bare NumPs.

Type
Notes and Discussion
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I am grateful to Arbilana Abaeva, Tsara Dzhanaev, Aslanbek Kasaev, Elizaveta Kochieva, Andzhela Kudzoeva, Fedar Takazov, and other Ossetic speakers too numerous to list whose judgments are utilized here. I thank Kyle Johnson, Mark Norris, and three anonymous reviewers for their comments to earlier versions of the squib. Thanks also to Olga Kagan and Rajesh Bhatt for discussions.

References

Abaev, Vasilij I. 1964. Grammatical sketch of Ossetic. Mouton: The Hague.Google Scholar
Abney, Steven. 1987. The English noun phrase in its sentential aspect. Ph.D. dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
Baker, Mark C. 2003. Lexical categories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bošković, Željko. 2005. On the locality of left branch extraction and the structure of NP. Studia Linguistica 59.1, 145.Google Scholar
Bošković, Željko. 2008. What will you have, DP or NP? Proceedings of NELS 37, 101114.Google Scholar
Bošković, Željko & Gajewski, Jon. 2011. Semantic correlates of the NP/DP parameter. Proceedings of NELS 39, 121134.Google Scholar
Danon, Gabi. 2006. Caseless nominals and the projection of DP. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 24, 9771008.Google Scholar
Dayal, Veneeta. 2011. Hindi pseudo-incorporation. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 29.1, 123167.Google Scholar
Despić, Miloje. 2011. Syntax in the absence of determiner phrase. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Connecticut.Google Scholar
Fukui, Naoki & Speas, Margaret. 1986. Specifiers and projection. In Fukui, Naoki, Rapoport, Tova R. & Sagey, Elizabeth (eds.), MIT Working Papers in Linguistics, vol. 8, 128172.Google Scholar
Giusti, Giuliana. 2002. The functional structure of noun phrases: A bare phase structure approach. In Cinque, Guglielmo (ed.), Functional structure in DP and IP: The cartography of syntactic structures, vol. 1, 5490. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Giusti, Giuliana & Iovino, Rossella. 2016. Latin as a split-DP language. Studia Linguistica 70.3, 221249.Google Scholar
Hsu, Brian & Syed, Saurov. 2018. Cross-linguistic evidence for indexical projections in DPs. Handout of the talk at LSA.Google Scholar
Lyutikova, Ekaterina & Pereltsvaig, Asya. 2015. The Tatar DP. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue Canadienne de Linguistique 60.3, 289325.Google Scholar
Manlove, Kathleen. 2015. Evidence for a DP-projection in West Greenlandic Inuit. The Canadian Journal of Linguistics / La revue canadienne de linguistique 60.3, 327360.Google Scholar
Norris, Mark. 2018. Nominal structure in a language without articles: The case of Estonian. Glossa 3.1, 139.Google Scholar
Partee, Barbara H. 1986. Noun phrase interpretation and type-shifting principles. In Groenendijk, Jeroen, De Jongh, Dick & Stokhof, Martin (eds.), Studies in discourse representation theory and the theory of generalized quantifiers, 115143. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Pereltsvaig, Asya. 2006. Small nominals. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 24, 433500.Google Scholar
Pereltsvaig, Asya. 2007. The universality of DP: A view from Russian. Studia Linguistica 61.1, 5994.Google Scholar
Pereltsvaig, Asya & Kagan, Olga. 2018. Adjectives in layers. Rhema 2018.4, 125165.Google Scholar
Sabajti, Sulejman. 2010. Radzurdtɐ [Stories]. Dzɐugighɐu, Gassiti Viktori nombɐl rawwaghdon-poligrafon kustuat.Google Scholar
Stanković, Branimir. 2017. DP and mandatory determiners in article-less Serbo-Croatian. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 64.2, 257279.Google Scholar
Syed, Saurov & Simpson, Andrew. 2017. On the DP/NP status of nominal projections in Bangla: Consequences for the theory of phases. Glossa 2.68, 124.Google Scholar
Szabolcsi, Anna. 1984. The possessor that ran away from home. The Linguistic Review 2, 89102.Google Scholar
Szabolcsi, Anna. 1994. The Noun Phrase. The syntactic structure of Hungarian, 179274. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Trenkic, Danijela. 2000. The acquisition of English articles by Serbian speakers. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Trenkic, Danijela. 2004. Definiteness in Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian and some implications for the general structure of the nominal phrase. Lingua 114.11, 14011427.Google Scholar