The Layered DP: Form and Meaning of French Indefinites (Linguistik Aktuell Linguistics Today, Volume 124)

275 Pages·2008·2.47 MB·English

by  Tabea Ihsane

The Layered DP
Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today (LA)
Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today (LA) provides a platform for original monograph
studies into synchronic and diachronic linguistics. Studies in LA confront empirical
and theoretical problems as these are currently discussed in syntax, semantics,
morphology, phonology, and systematic pragmatics with the aim to establish robust
empirical generalizations within a universalistic perspective.
General Editors
Werner Abraham Elly van Gelderen
University of Vienna / Rijksuniversiteit Arizona State University
Groningen
Advisory Editorial Board
Cedric Boeckx Christer Platzack
Harvard University University of Lund
Guglielmo Cinque Ian Roberts
University of Venice Cambridge University
Günther Grewendorf Lisa deMena Travis
J.W. Goethe-University, Frankfurt McGill University
Liliane Haegeman Sten Vikner
University of Lille, France University of Aarhus
Hubert Haider C. Jan-Wouter Zwart
University of Salzburg University of Groningen
Volume 124
The Layered DP: Form and meaning of French indefinites
by Tabea Ihsane
The Layered DP
Form and meaning of French indefinites
Tabea Ihsane
University of Geneva
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ihsane, Tabea.
The layered DP : form and meaning of French indefinites / Tabea Ihsane.
p. cm. (Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, issn 0166-0829 ; v. 124)
Revised version of the author's thesis (Ph. D.--University of Geneva, in 2006) presented
under the title: The construction of the DP domain.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. French language--Article. I. Title.
PC2251.I37 2008
445--dc22 2008005165
isbn 978 90 272 5507 5 (Hb; alk. paper)
© 2008 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands
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Table of contents
Acknowledgements ix
chApTer 1.
Introduction 1
1. Setting the scene 1
2. The puzzle 2
2.1 On the interpretation of indefinites 2
2.2 On the structure of indefinites 3
2.3 What moves when and where 4
2.4 The French du/des ‘of.the’ construction 5
3. The proposals 6
4. Theoretical framework 8
4.1 Generative Grammar 8
4.2 The cartographic approach 8
4.3 Relativized Minimality 11
4.4 The structure of nominal phrases 13
4.4.1 From NP to DP 14
4.4.1.1 The co-occurrence of determiners 14
4.4.1.2 The DP-CP parallel 14
4.4.1.3 Movement 16
4.4.2 The nominal architecture 17
4.4.2.1 The inflectional domain 18
4.4.2.2 The left periphery 23
5. The Data 28
5.1 Two-way ambiguities 29
5.1.1 Milsark 29
5.1.2 Fodor and Sag 32
5.1.3 Enç 38
5.1.4 Diesing 41
5.1.5 Summary and comparison 43
5.2 Three-way ambiguities 45
5.2.1 Dobrovie-Sorin and Beyssade 45
5.2.2 Baunaz 47
5.2.3 Summary 50
vi The Layered DP: Form and meaning of French indefinites
chApTer 2.
un-Nps ‘a-Nps’ 51
1. Introduction 51
2. Types of un-NPs 53
2.1 Referential noun phrases 53
2.1.1 Definition and characteristics 53
2.1.2 Referential un-NPs 56
2.2 Quantificational noun phrases 61
2.2.1 Definition and characteristics 61
2.2.2 Quantificational un-NPs 62
2.2.3 Presupposition of existence 64
2.3 A third type of noun phrases 68
2.3.1 Interpretation and characteristics 68
2.3.2 Property-denoting noun phrases 71
2.3.3 The distribution of P-un-NPs 78
2.4 Conclusion 83
3. The structure of un-NPs 84
3.1 The structure of arguments 84
3.1.1 Arguments as DPs 84
3.1.2 Previous analysis 87
3.2 The lowest projection of the left periphery 91
3.2.1 The structure 91
3.2.2 Some consequences 94
3.3 The Quantifier Phrase 95
3.3.1 The structure 95
3.3.2 Scope islands 99
3.3.3 Scope interactions 100
3.4 The S-Reference phrase 102
3.4.1 The structure 102
3.4.2 Scope islands 106
3.4.3 Intermediate scope 107
3.4.4 Quantifier Raising without circularity 110
3.4.5 Semantic paraphrases 113
3.4.6 The limits of a Choice Function analysis 115
3.5 Comparison with two-way analyses 116
4. Conclusion 119
chApTer 3.
Du/des-Nps 123
1. Introduction 123
1.1 The analysis 123
Table of contents vii
1.2 The ambiguity of du/des-constructions 125
1.3 Structures in a pre-DP framework 131
1.3.1 The partitive constituent 132
1.3.2 The quantitative constituent 134
2. Types of du/des-NPs 137
2.1 S-referential des-NPs 137
2.2 Quantificational du/des-NPs 140
2.3 Property du/des-NPs 143
2.4 Conclusion 146
3. The structure 148
3.1 The left periphery 148
3.1.1 Property du/des-NPs 148
3.1.2 Quantificational du/des-NPs 149
3.1.3 S-referential des-NPs 152
3.2 The inflectional domain 154
3.2.1 The interpretation 154
3.2.2 The structure 162
3.3 More on partitives 168
3.4 Notes on the-NPs 182
4. Conclusion 184
chApTer 4.
Bare nouns 189
1. Introduction 189
2. Types of bare nouns 191
2.1 Germanic and Romance 191
2.2 French 194
3. The structure 197
3.1 The left periphery 197
3.2 The inflectional domain 200
4. Coordinated bare nouns 204
4.1 The interpretation 205
4.1.1 Singulars 205
4.1.2 Plurals 208
4.2 The structure 210
4.2.1 The left periphery 210
4.2.2 The inflectional domain 213
5. Further issues 215
5.1 The generic reading 215
5.2 A note on incorporation 220
6. Conclusion 222
viii The Layered DP: Form and meaning of French indefinites
chApTer 5.
conclusion 225
1. The results 225
1.1 The analysis and the proposals 225
1.2 Prediction for language acquisition 228
2. Further issues and future research 229
2.1 The unbounded reading 229
2.2 Languages without determiners 236
Bibliography 241
Index 255
Acknowledgements
This book is the revised version of my doctoral dissertation, submitted to the De-
partment of Linguistics, University of Geneva, in 2006.
In contrast to traditional acknowledgements, my first words are for those who
are closest to me, in particular my husband who has always been supportive, my chil-
dren who do not resent their mom for being so busy, my parents and family-in-law
who gave me the opportunity to rest when I visited them or by taking care of the kids.
On the linguistics side, the first person I would like to thank is Liliane Haege-
man, who taught me most of what I know and whose enthusiasm for linguistics is
contagious.
This book has benefited greatly from stimulating discussions with other lin-
guists and from written comments, pointers and suggestions on (parts of) previous
versions. Special thanks go to Hagit Borer, Giuliana Giusti, Genoveva Piskás
and Ur Shlonsky for their detailed and helpful remarks and critics and for their
encouragements. I am also indebted to Enoch Aboh, Artemis Alexiadou, Lena
Baunaz, Donka Farkas, Claire Forel, Eric Haeberli, Liliane Haegeman, Monica
Jakots, Christopher Laenzlinger, Jacques Moeschler, Cecilia Poletto, Luigi Rizzi,
Michal Starke, Eszter Varga, Eric Wehrli and Roberto Zamparelli.
Parts of the analysis developed here have been presented in 2006 at ‘Edges
in Syntax’ in Nicosia and at ‘Interface Legibility at the Edge’ in Bucharest. Many
thanks to the audiences of these conferences for their questions and comments, in
particular to Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin, Nino Grillo, James Higginbotham, Ellen-
Petra Kester, Tom Roeper and Petra Sleeman.
My deepest thanks also go to Werner Abraham for offering to publish the
book in the Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today series. I am very grateful for his
and for Elly van Gelderen’s productive comments.
Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to various non linguists for their
friendship. Thanks Annick, Catherine, Christian, Floriane, Gaëlle, Hayley, Lada,
Lavinia, Leila, Mariane, Mirka, Mirto, Rosanna, Ruth, Sonia, Trudi, Valérie, Véro-
nique and Youssef ! These past two years have been particularly difficult for me and
my family for personal and professional reasons but it has allowed me to experi-
ence God’s presence and faithfulness in a very special way. This is why, last but not
least, my final words of thanks go to Him.
Geneva, December 2007