We argue that the counterpart of Marantz’s generalization does not hold in the nominal domain, because there are idioms in which the determiner and the noun receive an idiomatic meaning while the PP that modifies the noun is not part of the idiom (we call these “PP-less idioms”). We show that PP-less idioms are fully expected if the hypothesis of parallelism between nominal structure and clausal structure is dropped and it is assumed that the first step of the derivation in the nominal domain involves merge of D and N. As for the mirror image of PP-less idioms, “PP-containing idioms”, namely DPs where N and the PP that follows the noun receive an idiomatic reading while D does not, we suggest that they are not generated by syntax but are rather the output of the morphological component.
Donati, C., Barberà, G., Branchini, C., Cecchetto, C., Geraci, C., Quer, J. (2017). Searching for imperatives in European sign languages. In D. Van Olmen, S. Heinold (a cura di), Imperatives and Directive Strategies. John Benjamins [10.1075/slcs.184.04don].
Searching for imperatives in European sign languages
Donati, C;Cecchetto, C;
2017
Abstract
We argue that the counterpart of Marantz’s generalization does not hold in the nominal domain, because there are idioms in which the determiner and the noun receive an idiomatic meaning while the PP that modifies the noun is not part of the idiom (we call these “PP-less idioms”). We show that PP-less idioms are fully expected if the hypothesis of parallelism between nominal structure and clausal structure is dropped and it is assumed that the first step of the derivation in the nominal domain involves merge of D and N. As for the mirror image of PP-less idioms, “PP-containing idioms”, namely DPs where N and the PP that follows the noun receive an idiomatic reading while D does not, we suggest that they are not generated by syntax but are rather the output of the morphological component.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.