Hyponymous objects and Late Insertion

Abstract

In this paper I propose a solution to a problematic issue for syntactic head-movement analyses of both noun incorporation (NI) and denominal verb constructions—hyponymous direct objects. Such objects challenge the idea that an incorporated nominal is base-generated in object position, because in surface syntax that position is filled with non-cognate nominal material. By applying the Distributed Morphology notion of Late Insertion I propose an analysis wherein non-cognate nominal material can be inserted into the tail of a movement chain in both construction types. Under a Minimalist view of movement, a copy of the moved item appears both at the head and tail of a chain. With Late Insertion, these copies are not actual words, but rather identical abstract syntactico-semantic features. My analysis of hyponymous objects is that some languages allow for the insertion of non-cognate material to spell-out the features in the tail position when such spell-out is non-deterministic. I argue that the hyponymy relation is attributable to pragmatic interpretation, and I also apply this analysis to cases of “classifier incorporation”. Finally, I address some residual theoretical issues raised by the Late Insertion analysis of NI, including variation in complementation in denominal verb and NI constructions.