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Share Paper 3177

Relative Clauses in an Article-less Language
Ivana LaTerza
268-275 (complete paper or proceedings contents)

Abstract

The goal of this paper is two-fold: (a) it argues for the existence of a DP projection in Serbian based on observed selectional dependencies between Ds and relative clauses (RC), and (b) it proposes that Serbian RCs are optional arguments of D (Smith 1964, Larson 1991). Specifically, I offer new arguments in favor of the Universal DP-Hypothesis, examining a key syntactic point that has received little attention in the literature, viz., that lack of a DP projection in article-less languages will require an NP-adjunct analysis of relative clauses. I discuss apparent selectional dependencies between D-elements and relative clauses that strongly undermine this view. These findings thus support the presence of DP in article-less languages, and the broader claim of universality for the functional category set.

Published in

Proceedings of the 32nd West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics
edited by Ulrike Steindl, Thomas Borer, Huilin Fang, Alfredo García Pardo, Peter Guekguezian, Brian Hsu, Charlie O'Hara, and Iris Chuoying Ouyang
Table of contents
Printed edition: $375.00