The Boundary Between Morphology and Syntax: Determiners Move Into the Determiner Phrase
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Abstract
Extending ideas of Abney's (1987) and Brugè's (1996), this paper argues that determiners are merged below the adjective in a phrase, called dP. From the assumption that determiners may move to D at varying times, the different adjectival paradigms in German (weak, strong, and 'mixed') follow. Second, adjunction of adjectives to dP straightforwardly accounts for the obligatoriness of determiners with singular modified predicative NPs (Sie ist *(eine) gute Lehrerin 'She is a good teacher.') and modified proper names (*(der) nette Hans 'the nice Hans'). Third, movement of the indefinite determiner ein ('a') at PF allows for different analyses of noun phrases at PF and LF. As a result, apparent violations of the NP-DP generalization (Sie ist eine Lehrerin 'She is a teacher'; Sie sehen Lehrerinnen 'They see teachers') can be explained. At a more general level, the paper argues for two relations with regard to the DP: an external relation is established between the DP and its predicate (overtly manifested by the Principle of Monoinflection), and an internal relation holds between determiners, head nouns, and modifiers (N-to-d raising). Apparent violations of the Principle of Monoinflection reduce to checking agreement features within the DP.
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