Abstract
AbstractUniversal Grammar places a restriction on self‐embedding recursion structures created through External Merge: A phasal category of type α can be embedded in a phasal category of the same type where there is a c‐command relation between the heads of the two instances of α only if the two instances of α are separated by a phase head. This restriction (the exact counterpart of the familiar c‐command cum phasemate requirement that is imposed on identical copies of a single category under Internal Merge) explains a variety of hitherto poorly understood properties of the noun phrase. The set of elements that are eligible to serve as nondative possessors in Hungarian possessive DPs is shown to fall out from the recursion restriction: all and only those possessors that are not as large as DP can be placed in the caseless possessor position in the immediate c‐command domain of the D head of the possessive noun phrase; dative possessors are in the specifier position of the possessive DP, not c‐commanded by its D head and hence immune to the recursion restriction. The recursion restriction sheds new light on the syntax of the possessive noun phrase, the nature of possessor drop, and the structure and distribution of demonstratives. The analysis also presents an empirical case for labeling of XP–YP structures via ϕ‐feature sharing.
Highlights
Restriction on copy deletion a phasal category of type á can license the deletion of a phasal category of the same type where there is an asymmetric c-command relation between the heads of the two instances of á only if the two instances of á are NOT separated by a phase head
We have seen that the recursion restriction in (1), in conjunction with independently supported assumptions about the structures of the various ki-forms, delivers exactly the distribution of caseless possessors that we find in (6): all and only those ki-form possessors that are necessarily as large as DP are barred from the caseless possessor position in the c-command domain of the head of the possessive DP
We have argued that the fact that Hungarian interrogative, distributive, relative, and demonstrative pronouns can be dative possessors but cannot fill the caseless possessor position can be directly derived from the recursion restriction
Summary
The central hypothesis of this paper is that that there exists a restriction on self-embedding recursion structures created through Merge, stated in (1).. Restriction on recursion a phasal category of type á can be embedded in a phasal category of the same type where there is an asymmetric c-command relation between the heads of the two instances of á only if the two instances of á are separated by a phase head (1) is the counterpart of the c-command cum phasemate constraint on deletion of identical copies of a single category under Internal Merge (Chomsky 2001). Phase-level categories are eligible for Internal Merge, and the structural relation between the two copies must, besides c-command, obey the requirement that they not be separated by a phase head.
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