Notes on Non-Parallel Behavior between Nominals and Clauses

Abstract

The seminal work such as Abney (1987) and Szabolcsi (1983, 1994) suggests that noun phrases have sentence-like structures. More specifically, noun phrases have functional categories analogous to I or C. The views raise the following question. How parallel are structures of clauses and noun phrases? In order to answer the question, we focus on interesting asymmetries which occur between nominal structures and clausal structures. More specifically, this paper explores restrictions on non-occurrence of so-called genitive markers previously discussed by An (2009, 2012, and 2014) and impossibility of movement inside the nominal domain. We also discuss further asymmetries related to quantifiers and adverbials which are not properly analyzed in the previous literature. We show that non-parallel behaviors are explained under the assumption that positions related to discourse are not available inside nominal domains.