DP-Periphery and Clausal Periphery: Possessor Doubling in West Flemish

Abstract

This paper concerns the structure of DP and more particularly the articulation of the DP-periphery and its relevance for possessor extraction. The empirical focus is the possessor doubling construction in WF. In the first part of the paper I have shown that, contrary to appearances, WF does not instantiate possessor extraction. In the second part of the paper, I elaborate an analysis of the DP-periphery, building on Rizzi’s split CP and on my own application of his analysis to Germanic V2 patterns (Haegeman 1996). I propose that the head encoding definiteness in the nominal periphery corresponds to the head encoding finiteness in the clausal periphery. Following Zribi-Hertz (1998), I propose that the possessive pronoun in WF is a ‘possessive definite article’ which spells out a nominal inflectional head and moves to Dfin to check its definite feature. The possessor identifies a non-overt possessor pro in [Spec,IP] (cf. Authier 1992a). The possessor DP occupies [Spec,DfinP]. In the same way that [Spec,FinP] is construed as an A-position when occupied by the subject DP and cannot serve to launch long subject extraction in Germanic V2 languages, [Spec,DfinP] is construed as an A-position when occupied by the possessor and is not a launching site for possessor extraction. In languages that tolerate possessor extraction the prenominal possessor DP reaches the A’-specifier of a higher functional head.