On the importance of the null noun. A comparative analysis of the indefinite pronoun construction in Dutch and French.

Author: Tess Wensink
Source: LingUU Journal, vol. 6, Iss. 2, pp. 4-18
Year: 2022
Published by: LingUU Journal

Abstract

Some languages show a change in word order when an indefinite pronoun
is modified. This is the case in the Dutch partitive genitive construction (PGC) and in the French indefinite pronoun structure (IPS), in which an adjective follows an indefinite pronoun. Interestingly, in the Dutch PGC, the adjective is inflected with -s, whereas the preposition de is used in the French IPS. Another dif ference between these languages concerns the indefinite pronouns: whereas only the inanimate indefinite pronoun
can be used in the Dutch PGC, both inanimate and animate indefinite pronouns can be used in the French IPS. I argue that these dif ferences can be explained by the null noun that follows the adjective in both constructions. I suggest that the inflection -s in Dutch licenses and identifies this null noun. In contrast, following Roehrs (2008), I argue that in French, de is the spell-out of the adjunction of the indefinite pronoun and the adjective. The feature specification of the null noun and the agreement between the indefinite pronoun and the adjective explain why an animate indefinite pronoun can be used in French, whereas this is not possible in Dutch

Keywords

indefinite pronoun; partitive genitive; null noun; licensing; identification

LingUU6.2

On the importance of the null noun. A comparative analysis of the indefinite pronoun construction in Dutch and French.

Geef een antwoord Reactie annuleren