Abstract
It is standardly assumed that nominals in the languages of the world are syntactically complex in the typical case, being made up of not just NP, but one or more functional projections, e.g., DP (Abney 1987). Recently, this assumption has been questioned, especially for languages without articles (Bošković 2005, et seq.). The alternative proposal holds that nominals in Serbo-Croatian (and more strongly, languages without articles in general) lack the DP projection, and that this difference has a variety of syntactic consequences. In this paper, I investigate the nominal extended projection of another language without articles, Estonian (Finno-Ugric). On the basis of a number of facts about Estonian’s system of adnominal genitives, I conclude that nominals in Estonian should not be given the same analysis as those in Serbo-Croatian. I propose instead that Estonian’s nominals are DPs. I then propose that indefinite pronouns and wh-determiners instantiate the category D0 in the language, arguing that DP does more cross-linguistically than host articles. I conclude that nominal structure in languages without articles can be just as complex as nominal structure in languages with articles.
Highlights
In the syntax of nominal phrases, articles are canonically analyzed as heads of their own projection, DP, which in the simplest terms takes NP as its complement 2 (Abney 1987)
3.1 Estonian nominals can have two genitive modifiers Bošković (2008b; 2012) reveals a variety of properties that are shared by some languages without articles, and he proposes that these differences come from an NP/DP distinction
Per the analysis presented above, genitives are introduced by a functional projection above NP, though some nouns can license a genitive in their own specifier
Summary
In the syntax of nominal phrases, articles are canonically (or frequently) analyzed as heads of their own projection, DP, which in the simplest terms takes NP as its complement 2 (Abney 1987). 3.1 Estonian nominals can have (at least) two genitive modifiers Bošković (2008b; 2012) reveals a variety of properties that are shared by some languages without articles, and he proposes that these differences come from an NP/DP distinction. If D0 is a case assigner, it is immediately clear why the availability of a second genitive would correlate with the presence or absence of D0.16 In a world in which some languages without articles have DP and others do not, the distinction between languages like Estonian and languages like Polish or Serbo-Croatian with respect to this diagnostic receives a straightforward explanation.
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