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Definiteness marking and the structure of Danish pseudopartitives.
- Source :
- Journal of Linguistics; Jul2008, Vol. 44 Issue 2, p317-346, 30p
- Publication Year :
- 2008
-
Abstract
- The Danish pseudopartitive constructions differ in their possibilities of definiteness marking: the Indirect Partitive Construction (IPC) (D N1 P N2) permits Ni to bear the definite suffix, while the Direct Partitive Construction (DPC) (D N1 N2) does not; in addition, neither construction permits the prenominal definite article in the absence of a prenominal modifier. Drawing on previous work regarding the morphosyntax of definiteness marking in Danish, we use the distribution of definiteness marking as a probe to illuminate the structure of the pseudopartitive constructions. Our conclusion is that despite superficial similarities the two constructions are quite different in structure, the IPC having a lexical N head and a PP complement, and the DPC a functional n head with an NP complement, forming a single extended projection of N2. These assumptions allow us to account for a number of differences in the behavior of these constructions, shedding light on the nature of pseudopartitives as well as on the theory of extended projections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00222267
- Volume :
- 44
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Journal of Linguistics
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 33399900
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022226708005148