Coordinated Bare Definites

Recent work on the syntax and semantics of functional projections within the noun phrase has had as one goal an explanation for the crosslinguistic distribution of bare (determinerless) noun phrases. This article provides an account for an apparent anomaly: the relatively free occurrence of bare noun phrases under coordination. We argue that this construction involves coordination of projections below the DP level, with the coordinated structure subsequently raising to Spec, DP.Our analysis accounts for the fact that these nominals are endowed with uniqueness conditions, but only in some cases, and for a number of other hitherto undocumented facts, including complex constraints on modification.

[1]  Susan Rothstein.  Events and Grammar , 2001 .

[2]  G. Chierchia,et al.  Reference to Kinds across Language , 1998 .

[3]  Caroline Heycock,et al.  Friends and Colleagues: Plurality and NP-Coordination , 2000 .

[4]  Heles Contreras,et al.  Spanish bare NPs and the ECP , 1986 .

[5]  Mary Dalrymple,et al.  Determiner agreement and noun conjunction , 2004, Journal of Linguistics.

[6]  Richard S. Kayne.  The Antisymmetry of Syntax , 1994 .

[7]  Heles Contreras,et al.  Generative Studies in Spanish Syntax , 1986 .

[8]  J. Altham.  Naming and necessity. , 1981 .

[9]  S. Neale,et al.  Indefinite descriptions: In defense of russell , 1991 .

[10]  L. Rizzi.  Null objects in Italian and the theory of 'pro' , 1986 .

[11]  G. Milsark.  Existential sentences in English , 1979 .

[12]  Jasper Roodenburg,et al.  French Bare Arguments Are Not Extinct: The Case of Coordinated Bare Nouns , 2004, Linguistic Inquiry.

[13]  B. Abbott.  Definiteness, existentials, and the 'list' interpretation , 1992 .

[14]  Gregory Norman Carlson,et al.  Reference to kinds in English , 1977 .

[15]  Gennaro Chierchia,et al.  Plurality of Mass Nouns and the Notion of “Semantic Parameter” , 1998 .

[16]  Ray Jackendoff,et al.  Semantic Interpretation in Generative Grammar , 1972 .

[17]  Roberto Zamparelli,et al.  A Theory of Kinds, Partitives and of/z Possessives , 1998 .

[18]  Stanley Dubinsky,et al.  Epithets as Antilogophoric Pronouns , 1998, Linguistic Inquiry.

[19]  Artemis Alexiadou,et al.  Possessors, predicates and movement in the determiner phrase , 1998 .

[20]  Ka Cormier,et al.  Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America , 2004 .

[21]  Anders Holmberg.  ON THE STRUCTURE OF PREDICATE NP1 , 1993 .

[22]  Roberto,et al.  Toward a uni ed analysis of DP Conjunction , 1999 .

[23]  Roberto Zamparelli,et al.  Definite and Bare Kind-denoting Noun Phrases , 2001 .

[24]  Guiseppe Longobardi,et al.  Reference and Proper Names: A Theory of N-movement in Syntax and , 1994 .

[25]  M. Baltin,et al.  Alternative conceptions of phrase structure , 1990 .

[26]  D. Delfitto,et al.  BARE PLURALS AND THE NUMBER AFFIX IN DP , 1991 .

[27]  Caroline Heycock,et al.  Friends and Colleagues: Plurality, Coordination, and the Structure of DP , 2005 .

[28]  Veneeta Dayal.  Number Marking and (in)Definiteness in Kind Terms , 2004 .

[29]  J. Peregrin.  LINGUISTICS AND PHILOSOPHY , 1998 .

[30]  Alice G. B. ter Meulen,et al.  The representation of (in)definiteness , 1989 .

[31]  N. Hornstein,et al.  THE NECESSITY OF LF , 1990 .

[32]  C. Barker,et al.  Partitives, Double Genitives and Anti-Uniqueness , 1998 .

[33]  Giuseppe Longobardi,et al.  Proper names and the theory of N-movement in Syntax and logical form , 1991 .

[34]  R. Clark,et al.  Scope assignment and modification , 1992 .

[35]  Irene Heim,et al.  The semantics of definite and indefinite noun phrases : a dissertation , 1982 .