Table of contents

List of contributors xxi

Abbreviations used in glosses xxiii

Preface xxv

Chapter 1

Introduction: Nominal features and nominal projections 1
Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin & Ion Giurgea (§§1–5), Donka Farkas (§6)

  1. Nominal features 2
    1. General observations and terminology 2
    2. Gender 6
    3. Number: Count and mass nouns 9
    4. Case 11
  2. Pronouns and the person feature 14
  3. Determiners and other nominal functional categories 17
  4. Adnominal constituents 20
    1. Complements and modifiers 21
    2. Restrictive and non-restrictive modifiers, appositions 26
    3. Focal particles 28
  5. Distribution and syntactic functions of nominal projections 29
    1. Functions and distribution of DPs 29
    2. Functions and distribution of NPs 31
  6. The semantics of determiners and determiner phrases 32
    1. Types of DPs 32
    2. Theoretical perspectives 35
      1. Predicate calculus without and with restricted variables 35
      2. The relational analysis of determiners 38
      3. Montagovian approaches 39
      4. Dynamic approaches 44

Chapter 2

Bare nouns 49
Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin

  1. Introduction 49
    1. The distribution of bare nouns 49
    2. The syntactic structure of bare nouns 51
    3. The semantics of bare nouns: lack of article and domain of reference 52
  2. Bare plurals and bare mass nouns in argument positions 53
    1. Morphological case is incompatible with bare nouns 53
    2. The preverbal subject position 54
  3. Semantic constraints on BNs in argument positions 59
    1. Bare nouns and types of predicates 59
    2. VP-level existential closure 60
    3. Existential vs. presuppositional predicates 61
    4. Scope 62
    5. Anaphoric peculiarities 64
    6. Aspectual peculiarities 66
  4. Count bare singulars in argument positions 68
    1. Classes of verbs 68
    2. Further lexical constraints 70
    3. Bare singulars in subject positions 71
    4. Bare singulars after prepositions 72
    5. The semantic analysis of bare singulars 73
      1. Bare singulars as property-denoting expressions 73
      2. Incorporating predicates 73
      3. Narrow scope with respect to negation 74
  5. Bare nouns in adnominal positions 76
  6. Bare abstract nouns in argument positions 77
  7. Bare singulars in predicate positions. A comparison with singular indefinites 79
    1. Classes of nouns 79
    2. The internal make-up of bare singulars and singular indefinites 81
      1. Arguments of DP-internal nouns and arguments of bare nouns 81
      2. Prepositional and adverbial adjuncts 83
      3. Modifiers and arguments of bare singulars 85
    3. Two types of copular sentences 86
      1. Predicational sentences 87
      2. Identificational-specificational sentences 90
      3. Metaphoric uses of singular indefinites 92
      4. Conclusions 93
    4. Bare nouns in impersonal constructions 93

Chapter 3

The syntax of determiners and other functional categories 97
Ion Giurgea

  1. Introduction: Nominal functional categories 97
  2. Distributional classes 104
  3. Noun ellipsis, pro-N and pro-DP 110
    1. Nominal functional elements that do not allow N-ellipsis 110
    2. Nominal functional elements that allow N-ellipsis 111
    3. Pro-DPs (pronouns) 116
      1. Indefinite pronouns 117
      2. Personal pronouns 119
      3. Note on the existence of a person feature in certain DPs 123
      4. The ‘genitival and ordinal article’ al 124
    4. Nominal ellipsis in bare nouns 125
  4. Phrasal functional categories and the issue of partitive PPs 128
    1. Phrasal functional categories 128
    2. Partitive PPs 130
  5. Quantitatives 133
    1. Scalar quantitatives 134
    2. Cardinals 136
    3. Nominalized cardinals and nouns functioning as quantitative expressions 139
      1. Nominalized cardinals 139
      2. Vague quantity nouns 141
      3. Fractional numerals 143
      4. Names of numbers 143
    4. Quantity expressions that always occupy the D layer (D-quantitatives) 143
    5. Quantity expressions in predicative positions 144
    6. Note on the word un ‘a, one’ 145
  6. Common properties of quantitatives and some indefinite determiners 146
    1. Sensitivity to number 146
    2. Left-dislocation 146
    3. Approximation modifiers 149
    4. Conclusion 150
  7. The alternative and the identity determiner 150
    1. The alternative 150
    2. The identity determiner 153
    3. Complements of equality and difference 154
  8. Definite determiners 157
    1. The definite article 157
    2. Demonstratives 160
    3. Definite phrases in SpecDP 163
  9. Pre-determiners 169
  10. The system of complex determiners, pro-DPs and pro-adverbials 173

Chapter 4

The semantics of determiners 175
Donka F. Farkas

  1. Introduction 175
  2. Definite determiners 178
    1. Definite vs. indefinite DPs 178
    2. The definite determiner -ul 180
    3. Demonstrative determiners 188
    4. Conclusion 191
  3. Indefinite determiners 191
    1. Unmarked indefinite determiners 192
      1. Scopal freedom 194
      2. Specific and non-specific indefinites DPs and ways of marking them 205
      3. Generic indefinites 209
    2. Marked indefinite determiners 212
      1. Partitive DPs and partitive determiners 212
      2. Dependent indefinites: The co-varying determiner câte un 216
      3. The negative indefinite determiner niciun 217
      4. Free choice: Vreun and ori- determiners 219
      5. Identifiable indefinites: Un anume 227
    3. Conclusion 229
  4. Conclusion 229

Chapter 5

Pronouns 231
Sanda Rîpeanu Reinheimer, Liliane Tasmowski & Andra Vasilescu (§§1.1–1.7), Ion Giurgea (§§1.8.1–1.8.5, §4), Andra Vasilescu (§1.8.6), Rodica Zafiu (§§2–3)

  1. Personal and reflexive pronouns 231
    1. Introduction 231
    2. Grammatical features and paradigm 231
      1. The feature composition of personal pronouns 231
      2. The forms 233
    3. Syntactic differences between strong and clitic forms 234
    4. Strong Pronouns 238
    5. The grammatical functions of clitic pronouns 243
      1. Common grammatical functions of clitic and strong pronouns 243
      2. Grammatical functions restricted to clitics 244
      3. The clitic doubling of strong pronouns 245
      4. Pronominal clitics vs. inflection 247
      5. Overt and null subject pronouns 248
    6. The structure of clitic clusters 250
      1. Linear orders inside the verbal cluster 250
      2. Constraints on the verbal host 254
      3. Pronominal clitic clusters 256
        1. The order of co-occurring dative and accusative clitics 256
        2. Ethical datives co-occurring with other pronominal clitics 257
        3. Person constraints 258
    7. Clitic allomorphs 260
      1. The forms 260
      2. The selection of allomorphs 262
      3. The clitic o 266
      4. Verb allomorphs 267
    8. The semantics of personal and reflexive pronouns 268
      1. Co-reference 268
      2. The bound variable interpretation 270
      3. The interpretation of gender 273
      4. Pronouns of laziness 276
      5. Genderless pronouns 278
      6. Special (pragmatic) interpretations of some pronominal forms 280
        1. Generic uses 280
        2. Person deviations 280
  2. Politeness pronouns 282
    1. Introduction 282
    2. Morphology 283
    3. Syntactic properties: Doubling clitics and agreement 284
    4. The use of politeness forms 286
  3. The pronominal intensifier însuşi 287
    1. Morphology 287
    2. Syntactic properties 288
    3. The intensifier use 291
    4. The reflexive use 292
  4. Reciprocal constructions 294
    1. Introduction 294
    2. Reciprocal marking 296
      1. Clitics 296
      2. Strong reciprocal anaphors 297
    3. Locality constraints and positions of the antecedent 300
    4. Reciprocal marking and symmetric predicates 303
    5. The semantics of reciprocal constructions 306
      1. Strong vs. weak reciprocity 306
      2. Individual vs. group readings 307
      3. Special reading with ordering predicates 308

Chapter 6

Genitive DPs and pronominal possessors 309
Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin (§§1–4), Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin & Isabela Nedelcu (§5), Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin & Ion Giurgea (§6)

  1. Introduction 309
  2. The syntax of genitives 311
    1. Synthetic genitives and al-genitives 311
    2. Synthetic genitives following definite nouns are disguised al-genitives 314
    3. Free-standing genitive DPs 317
    4. Prenominal genitives 319
    5. The syntactic position of postnominal genitives 321
    6. The status of the genitive “article” al occurring in postnominal genitives 322
    7. Co-occurring genitives 324
    8. Conclusions: types of genitives, types of nominal projections and determiners 326
  3. The interpretation of genitives 327
    1. The semantic composition 327
    2. (In)definiteness spread 330
    3. Interpretive variability 331
    4. Mutual constraints between the determiners of genitives and the head N 332
    5. The interpretation of genitives in predicate positions 333
  4. Genitive Case alternating with prepositional marking 334
    1. Genitive Case alternating with de-marking 334
    2. Genitive Case alternating with a-marking 338
  5. De-al genitives 339
    1. The structure of de-al genitives 339
    2. The interpretation of de-al genitives 341
    3. Other distributional properties of de-al genitives 343
    4. Partitive de-ai 344
      1. Unul + de + plural al- phrase 344
      2. Elliptical constructions 345
  6. Pronominal possessors 347
    1. A non-uniform paradigm: Genitive-marked and agreeing pronominal possessors 347
    2. The position of pronominal possessors 349
    3. On the categorial status of agreeing possessors 351
    4. Suffixal agreeing possessors with kinship terms 352

Chapter 7

The adjective 355
Alexandra Cornilescu & Ion Giurgea (§§1–4), Ion Giurgea (§5)

  1. Introduction. The adjective compared to the other lexical categories 355
    1. Adjectives and nouns. The nominalization of adjectives 356
    2. Adjectives and verbs 360
      1. The external argument of adjectives 360
      2. Semantic correlates of the adjective/verb distinction. The aspectual properties of adjectives 361
      3. Verbal forms with adjectival distribution. Participles vs. adjectives. 362
    3. Adjectives and adverbs 365
  2. Classes of adjectives 366
    1. Distributional classes 366
    2. Intersective and non-intersective adjectives 367
    3. Quality adjectives 369
      1. General properties 369
      2. Quality adjectives with a qua-N reading 370
    4. Non-intersective adjectives 372
      1. Two types of non-intersective adjectives: Relational and intensional adjectives 372
      2. Relational adjectives 375
      3. Non-relational denominal adjectives 383
      4. Intensional adjectives 385
  3. Adjective placement inside the DP 387
    1. Prenominal vs. postnominal adjectives 387
      1. Classes of prenominal adjectives 388
      2. Non-restrictive (appositive) vs. restrictive 391
      3. Conclusion. Prenominal adjectives compared with postnominal adjectives 398
      4. Formal constraints on the position of adjectives 399
    2. Relative order of stacked adjectives 400
    3. The double definiteness construction 407
  4. Gradation. Degree expressions, degrees of comparison 411
    1. Gradability. Degrees and scales 411
    2. Antonymic pairs and measure phrases 414
    3. Types of gradable adjectives depending on the structure of the scales 417
      1. Relative vs. absolute adjectives 417
      2. Absolute adjectives and the structure of the scale 419
      3. Distributive adjectives and perfect ‘perfectly’ vs. complet ‘completely’ 423
      4. Scalar properties of deverbal adjectives 425
    4. The syntax of the degree phrase 428
      1. Degree heads 428
      2. The de - construction 429
      3. Constructions with puţin and mult 436
      4. Other constituents licensed by degree words 438
      5. Degree heads in non-adjectival environments 441
    5. The comparative of superiority 444
      1. The comparative complement 445
      2. The differential 450
      3. Other elements that can modify mai 452
      4. Comparative correlatives 453
    6. The comparative of inferiority 456
    7. The comparative of equality (the equative) and other constructions with atât and aşa 457
      1. La fel 457
      2. Atât and aşa in equatives 459
      3. Other degree constructions with atât and aşa 462
      4. On the semantics of equatives. The internal reading of equatives 463
      5. Equatives without a degree word 465
    8. Comparing different properties 466
      1. The interpretations 466
      2. The comparative of superiority 468
      3. The comparative of equality 469
    9. The superlative 470
      1. The morpho-syntax of the superlative 470
      2. The semantics of the superlative 474
      3. The superlative of mult 478
    10. On the semantics of other degree words 480
  5. The complementation of adjectives 482
    1. Dative complements 484
    2. Prepositional complements 488
      1. The preposition cu 488
        1. The preposition cu with symmetric predicates 488
        2. The preposition cu with interpersonal behavior predicates and as a comitative adjunct 490
        3. Other uses 491
      2. The preposition de 491
      3. The preposition la 494
      4. The preposition în 495
      5. The preposition pe 496
      6. The preposition pentru 496
      7. The complex preposition faţă de 497
      8. Other prepositions 497
    3. Inherent accusative with the adjective dator 498
    4. Clausal arguments 499
      1. Introduction 499
      2. Finite clauses 501
        1. Object clauses 501
        2. Subject clauses 509
      3. Infinitival clauses 513
        1. Infinitival vs. finite clauses 513
        2. Introductory elements 515
        3. The subject of the infinitive 517
      4. Supine clauses 518
        1. Object clauses 519
        2. Subject clauses 523
        3. The tough-construction 524

Chapter 8

Adnominal prepositional phrases 531
Alexandru Mardale (§§1.1–1.2, §2.2.2, §3), Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin, Ion Giurgea & Alexandru Mardale (§1.3), Ion Giurgea & Alexandru Mardale (§2.1, §2.2.1)

  1. General properties of Romanian prepositions 531
    1. Lexical prepositions and functional prepositions 531
    2. Prepositions and case 533
      1. Lexical prepositions selecting the accusative 534
      2. Lexical prepositions selecting the genitive or the dative 534
      3. Functional prepositions as case markers 535
    3. Prepositions and the definite article 536
  2. Adnominal prepositional phrases headed by lexical prepositions 540
    1. Subcategorised lexical prepositions 541
      1. Lexical prepositions subcategorised by event-referring nouns 541
      2. Lexical prepositions selected by relational nouns 544
    2. Non-subcategorised lexical prepositions 548
      1. Local and temporal adjuncts 549
      2. Other PP adjuncts 554
  3. Adnominal prepositional phrases with functional prepositions 557
    1. Types of functional prepositions 557
    2. Adnominal bare NPs with the functional preposition de 558
      1. Types of adnominal bare NPs 558
      2. Idiomatic N-de-NP sequences 563

Chapter 9

Adnominal non-finite constituents and complement clauses 565
Elena Soare (§§1–2, 3.1–3.4), Rodica Zafiu & Elena Soare (§3.5)

  1. Introduction 565
  2. Finite and non-finite complements 567
    1. Infinitival and finite complement clauses 567
      1. Types of nouns selecting sentential complements 567
      2. Complement denotation and Mood selection 569
      3. Interpreting null subjects of infinitives 576
    2. Supines in subcategorized PPs 580
  3. Non-finite modifiers 583
    1. Distinguishing between supine reduced relatives and prepositional modifiers 583
    2. Supine prepositional modifiers 586
    3. The structure of supine reduced relatives 587
    4. Infinitive adnominal modifiers 589
    5. Gerund adnominal modifiers 590
      1. Identifying adnominal gerunds 591
      2. Non-finite restrictive vs. appositive relatives 593
      3. Semantic-aspectual constraints 594

Chapter 10

Relative Clause Constructions and unbounded dependencies 597
Alexander Grosu

  1. Terminological preliminaries 597
  2. Semantic types 598
    1. Restrictives and appositives 598
    2. Singleton relatives 609
      1. Intersective singleton relatives 609
        1. Relativization from an existential context 610
        2. Relativization from a degree context 615
        3. Relativization with non-grammatically imposed restrictions on determiners 617
      2. Non-intersective singleton relatives 620
    3. Conclusion 622
  3. Syntactic types 623
    1. Externally headed Relative Clause Constructions 623
    2. Free relative clause constructions 624
  4. Nominal and non-nominal relative clause constructions 629
  5. Introductory elements 632
    1. Relative pronouns vs. complementizers 632
    2. Distinctions in the nature and size of ‘relative phrases’ 634
      1. Simplex relative phrases 634
      2. Complex relative phrases (Pied Piping) 639
        1. Pied Piping in externally-headed Relative Clause Constructions 640
        2. Pied Piping and Case/P ‘matching’ in Free Relative Clause Constructions 644
  6. Possible gap locations 651
  7. Non-indicative Relative Clause Constructions 656
    1. Core Relative Clause Constructions 656
    2. Non-core existential Relative Clause Constructions 657

Chapter 11

Deverbal nouns 663
Alexandra Cornilescu §§2.2–2.5, Alexandra Cornilescu, Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin & Ion Giurgea §§1, 2.1, 3, Alexandra Cornilescu, Elena Soare, Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin & Ion Giurgea §4, Camelia Stan & Ion Giurgea §5

  1. 1. Introduction: Deverbal nouns and their argument structure 663
    1. 1.1 The morphology of deverbal nouns 664
    2. 1.2 The argument structure of deverbal nouns 666
    3. 1.3 Argument realization in complex event nouns; the noun + object and the noun + subject configurations 671
  2. 2. Nominalizations of transitive and unaccusative verbs: The noun + object configuration 672
    1. 2.1 Distinguishing between complex event nouns and simple deverbal nouns 672
      1. 2.1.1 The internal argument 673
      2. 2.1.2 The external argument 675
      3. 2.1.3 Thematic adjectives 680
      4. 2.1.4 Aspectual modifiers 680
      5. 2.1.5 Localizers 681
      6. 2.1.6 Control by an implicit Agent 682
    2. 2.2 Double object verbs 683
    3. 2.3 Are Noun-Object structures ‘passive’? 686
    4. 2.4 Verbs with a clausal complement 687
    5. 2.5 Unaccusative verbs 689
  3. 3. Nominalizations of unergative verbs: The Noun + Subject configuration 691
  4. 4. Aspect and nominalizations 697
    1. 4.1 Verbal aspectual classes and eventuality aspect 697
    2. 4.2 Eventuality aspect in complex event nouns 699
      1. 4.2.1 The aspectual class of the base 699
      2. 4.2.2 Telicity 701
    3. 4.3 The aspectual properties of the supine 704
    4. 4.4 Pluralization and determiner selection in complex event nouns 707
  5. 5. Simple deverbal nouns 708
    1. 5.1 The readings of simple deverbal nouns 709
    2. 5.2 Simple event nouns (SENs) 712
    3. 5.3 Agent nominalizations 714

Chapter 12

Proper names 719
Mihaela Miron-Fulea, Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin & Ion Giurgea

  1. 1. Introduction: Definition and main syntactic properties 719
  2. 2. Proper names and the definite article 721
    1. 2.1 The forms -a and -u in anthroponyms: Endings or definite articles? 721
    2. 2.2 Definite common nouns used as proper names 725
    3. 2.3 Toponyms 726
  3. 3. The internal structure of DPs headed by proper names 729
    1. 3.1 Proper names and functional categories 729
    2. 3.2 Prenominal modifiers 730
    3. 3.3 Postnominal modifiers 732
    4. 3.4 Secondary predicates built with proper names 735
    5. 3.5 Proper names followed by definite DPs and modifiers introduced by cel 737
    6. 3.6 Proper names preceded by common nouns 740
  4. 4. Proper names used as common nouns 740
    1. 4.1 Derived common noun interpretations 740
    2. 4.2 Special uses in which the proper name interpretation is preserved 743
  5. 5. Proper names in predicative position 745

Chapter 13

Classifier and qualitative binominal constructions 747
Mihaela Tănase-Dogaru & Ion Giurgea (§1), Mihaela Tănase-Dogaru, Ion Giurgea & Ruxandra Vişan (§2)

  1. 1. The classifier construction 747
    1. Types of classifier constructions 747
      1. Unit nouns 747
      2. Quantitative nouns 749
    2. Syntactic and semantic properties 751
      1. Determiners 751
      2. S-selection. N2 as a “semantic head” 752
      3. Agreement 752
      4. Modification 754
      5. Dislocation of N2 755
      6. Syntactic analysis 757
    3. Lexical ambiguity 758
    4. Note on the preposition de 760
    5. Classifier constructions with abstract nouns 761
  2. The qualitative construction 762
    1. Overview 762
    2. Single-DP qualitatives 764
      1. Types of N1 764
      2. Agreement properties 767
      3. The interaction with determiners 769
      4. The head of the construction 770
    3. Double-DP qualitatives 771

Chapter 14

Appositions and juxtaposed nouns 775
Raluca Brăescu & Ion Giurgea

  1. Introduction 775
  2. Appositions 776
    1. Distinguishing appositions from other parenthetical constructions 776
    2. The equative apposition 777
      1. Distribution 778
      2. Semantic properties 781
      3. Case properties and the distinction between appositions and reformulations 782
    3. The attributive apposition 783
    4. Attributive appositions versus circumstantial small clauses 786
    5. Iterated appositions 789
    6. A common syntactic characterization of attributive and equative appositions 790
  3. Juxtaposed nouns 791
    1. Common Noun + Proper Noun 791
    2. Proper Noun + Definite DP 797
    3. Common Noun + Common Noun 798

Chapter 15

Vocatives 801
Blanca Croitor & Virginia Hill

  1. Definition 801
  2. Pragmatic properties 801
  3. Phonology 803
  4. Lexicon 804
  5. Morphology 805
    1. Case endings 805
    2. The alternation -e versus -ule for masculine singular 807
    3. The alternation of Case marked and unmarked vocatives 808
  6. Syntax: Phrase structure 811
    1. Modifiers of vocative nouns 811
      1. Adjectives 812
      2. Pronominal possessors and genitives 814
      3. Quantifiers 815
      4. Binominal DPs 816
      5. Prepositional phrases 817
      6. N1 de N2 818
      7. Relative clauses 818
    2. Nominalized adjectives 818
    3. Lexically null nouns 819
    4. Coordinated vocatives 819
  7. Syntax: The vocative in the sentence 820
    1. Vocatives – subjects of the imperatives? 821
    2. Anaphoric relations 822
  8. Reverse role vocatives 823
  9. Vocatives in exclamations 824
  10. Theoretical questions 825

Chapter 16

Nominal inflection 827
Ion Giurgea

  1. The inflection of determiners, adjectives and other functional items 828
    1. Gender+Number+Oblique morphemes 828
    2. Gender+Number morphemes 830
      1. Type I: Four-ending paradigm 830
      2. General rules concerning the Ø/-u and -i endings 831
      3. Type II: Three-ending paradigm, with one ending for the feminine 831
      4. Type III: Three-ending paradigms, with one ending for the plural 832
      5. Type IV: Two-ending paradigm 832
      6. Type V: One-ending paradigms: (a) -e or (b) no ending 833
  2. The inflection of nouns 833
  3. Stem alternations 837
  4. Irregular paradigms 841
  5. The definite declension 842
  6. Vocative endings 844
  7. The possessive inflection 846
    1. Endings of suffixal agreeing possessors 847
    2. Stem alternations in suffixal agreeing possessors 847
    3. Modifications of the nominal stem 847
  8. The augmented forms of determiners and other functional categories 848
  9. Paradigm samples 849

Bibliography 857

Index