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      Nominal structure in a language without articles: The case of Estonian

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          Abstract

          It is standardly assumed that nominals in the languages of the world are syntactically complex in the typical case, being made up of not just NP, but one or more functional projections, e.g., DP ( Abney 1987). Recently, this assumption has been questioned, especially for languages without articles ( Bošković 2005, et seq.). The alternative proposal holds that nominals in Serbo-Croatian (and more strongly, languages without articles in general) lack the DP projection, and that this difference has a variety of syntactic consequences. In this paper, I investigate the nominal extended projection of another language without articles, Estonian (Finno-Ugric). On the basis of a number of facts about Estonian’s system of adnominal genitives, I conclude that nominals in Estonian should not be given the same analysis as those in Serbo-Croatian. I propose instead that Estonian’s nominals are DPs. I then propose that indefinite pronouns and wh-determiners instantiate the category D 0 in the language, arguing that DP does more cross-linguistically than host articles. I conclude that nominal structure in languages without articles can be just as complex as nominal structure in languages with articles.

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          Most cited references82

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          The antisymmetry of syntax

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            Step by Step – Essays in Minimalist Syntax in Honor of Howard Lasnik

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              Problems of projection

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                2397-1835
                Glossa: a journal of general linguistics
                Ubiquity Press
                2397-1835
                23 March 2018
                2018
                : 3
                : 1
                : 41
                Affiliations
                [1 ]University of Oklahoma 780 Van Vleet Oval, Norman, OK 73019, US
                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3008-9600
                Article
                10.5334/gjgl.384
                5aeebdc3-2195-4f3b-aa58-3bc6db27be70
                Copyright: © 2018 The Author(s)

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

                History
                : 22 March 2017
                : 09 January 2018
                Categories
                Research

                General linguistics,Linguistics & Semiotics
                genitives,demonstratives,indefinite pronouns,NP/DP structure,Estonian

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