I examine the possibility of left branch extraction, focusing on extraction of adjectives out of NP, as in the following example from Serbo-Croatian:
(1) Visoke tvrde da vole t momke
tall they-claim that they-love boys
'They claim that they love tall boys.'
Slavic languages differ with respect to whether they allow constructions like (1). Thus, like English, Bulgarian disallows extraction of adjectives out of an NP. I will explore the Corver (1992)/Uriagereka (1988) proposal that what determines whether left branch extraction is allowed is presence vs absence of a DP projection in the traditional NP. According to Corver and Uriagereka, the traditional NP is a DP in Bulgarian, but an NP in Serbo-Croatian. They blame the impossibility of left branch extraction in Bulgarian on the presence of a DP. I will investigate the role that the DP plays in the possibility of left branch extraction and provide an account of the possibility of left branch extraction in (1), as well as its impossibility in double adjective constructions like (2).
(2) *Lijepe tvrde da vole t visoke momke
handsome they-claim that they-love tall boys
'They claim that they love handsome tall boys.'
I will also explore the consequences of the proposed analysis of left branch
extraction for the structure of the traditional NP. One of the questions that
will be explored is where adjectives are located within the
NP crosslinguistically.
If you are interested in meeting with the speaker, please contact Nina Kazanina or Scott Fults.
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