Abstract
AbstractThis paper examines prenominal von‐possessives in German and relates them to Saxon Genitives and Possessor Doublings in that language. Von‐possessives are prepositional possessives that precede determiners and are stressed. Saxon Genitives and Possessor Doublings are nominal possessives that pattern together but have properties different from von‐possessives. It is proposed that there are two left peripheral positions in the German noun phrase: Spec,DP and Spec,LPP. Nominal possessives move to Spec,DP checking the definiteness feature on D. In contrast, prepositional possessives move to the specifier of a higher Left Periphery Phrase checking a discourse feature. Despite these differences, this paper proposes that all possessive constructions have the same basic inner makeup. It is shown that non‐possessive elements can also surface in Spec,LPP. This dichotomy between nominal possessives and preposed PPs provides another argument that the nominal left periphery is more complex than usually assumed. However, it will be shown that in German the nominal left periphery is different from that of the clause.
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