Francisco Ordóñez: A Layered DP: Evidence from different Romance article systems

Seminari del CLT

A Layered DP: Evidence from different Romance article systems
FRANCISCO ORDÓÑEZ (Stony Brook University)

– joint work with Judy Bernstein (William Paterson University) and Francesc Roca (Universitat de Girona)

Divendres, 26 d’abril de 2019
Aula 202, 15:30

Abstract

This talk provides evidence for a richer structure of the DP based (in part) on two specific syntactic constructions in Catalan: Personal articles and the so called “Article Salat”. Personal articles in Catalan have been analyzed as expletives occupying D position (Longobardi 1997).  We provide an alternative account in which this personal article is not an expletive but it occupies a lower D head.  Evidence for this lower D head also comes from the Romance varieties displaying a double system, such as Balearic Catalan (s- and l- forms) and French (not Belgian) Picard (ch- and l- forms). We analyze double systems and personal articles and propose a multi-layered DP–DP1 and DP2–specialized for certain types of nominal expressions (APs, PPs, RCs corresponding to DP1; generics-uniques, titles, personal articles, collective nouns corresponding to DP2). Evidence for the analysis in both instances comes from the distribution of vocatives, differential object marking, and the possibility of co-occurrence.