Abstract
AbstractIn this paper, which discusses data from Gargano Apulian Italo‐Romance, I propose that prepositional and non‐prepositional genitives are fundamentally two different types of phrases, and that the interpretation of a non‐prepositional noun as the possessor is not due to a silent preposition or head‐modifier inversion, but rather to an agreement mechanism taking place between the modifier and its head. We propose that, just as a genitive can agree with its head for gender and number features so it can for definiteness, and that agreement for definiteness yields a genitival interpretation of the non‐prepositional noun. I.e., definiteness can externalize the syntactic relation between head and modifier. We also propose that in this Apulian variety, non‐prepositional genitives are syntactic phases (Chomsky 2001), and that the same holds for non‐prepositional ‘qualitative’ predicative phrases in the same language. This would explain the impossibility of accessing the phrase through syntactic operations such as extraction.
Highlights
The present work deals with a particular realization of genitival phrases found in the Italo-Romance variety of San Marco in Lamis, namely non-prepositional genitives
We introduced a peculiar type of non-prepositional genitive
In absence of a prepositional element, head and modifier are related through definiteness agreement
Summary
The present work deals with a particular realization of genitival phrases found in the Italo-Romance variety of San Marco in Lamis, namely non-prepositional genitives. From the analysis of the data, we draw the following conclusions: no selection requirements for [+HUMAN] nouns take place; the head and its modifier are related through agreement for definiteness. No syntactic operation can penetrate the phase, with phasehood being linked to definiteness (see Adger 2003, Radford 2004, and Jiménez-Fernández 2012). We suggest that agreement for definiteness takes place in Apulian non-prepositional genitives and we extend this idea to other types of Romance non-prepositional genitives. We propose that Apulian nonprepositional genitives are phases and that their phasehood is linked to definiteness (Adger 2003, Radford 2004, and Jiménez-Fernández 2012). From this derive their islandhood properties vis-à-vis the unavailability of syntactic operations such as extraction.
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