The distribution of Irish locatives (seo, sin, siúd): DP, AP, or other?
Date
2014-09
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Calgary
Abstract
This paper presents phonological and syntactic evidence from Irish demonstratives to argue for phrasal structure and an addition to the syntactic hierarchy of projections in the nominal domain – the demonstrative phrase (DemP). Previously in the literature, demonstratives have been analyzed as belonging to the same category as adjectives (Leu 2008), or as belonging to the same category as determiners (Wiltschko 2009). In this paper, I explore the predictions made by these analyses by extending them to Irish. The Irish data refutes both of those analyses because of obligatory co-occurrence with determiners, and a lack of adjective agreement. Phonological evidence (consonantal weakening effects) further allow me to argue that, unlike what is proposed by Cinque (2005) or Roberts (to appear), the demonstrative projection is not low in the nominal structure, but is actually external to the determiner projection and very high in the structure. I conclude this paper by making cross-linguistic predictions which are briefly extended to English demonstratives and outlining avenues for future research in applying these hypotheses to unrelated, non-Indo-European languages.
Description
Keywords
Linguistics, Irish language, Syntax, Grammar, Comparative and general--Locative constructions, Phonology, Grammar, Comparative and general--Demonstratives
Citation
Windsor, J. W. (2014). The distribution of Irish locatives (seo, sin, siúd): DP, AP, or other?. Calgary Working Papers in Linguistics, 28(Fall), 97-116.