Abstract for Dorian Roehrs's talk

Some Differences between the Clause and the Noun Phrase
Dorian Roehrs (University of North Texas)
October 23, 2007 (Tuesday)
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM; Room 7102, The CUNY Graduate Center

This paper discusses combinations of pronouns and predicate nouns in clauses and noun phrases. Focusing on garden-variety count nouns in German, it is shown that DPs are more restricted than CPs. For instance, while a plural pronoun can only combine with a plural noun in the DP (ihr Ärzte 'you doctors'), a plural pronoun can combine with both a "bare" noun and a plural noun in the CP (Ihr seid Arzt / Ärzte. 'You are doctors.'). In fact, adding distributive and collective floating quantifiers (jeder 'each'; alle (zusammen) 'all (together)') to the CP, other restrictions become apparent.

The following generalizations will be established: In the DP, the pronoun and the predicate noun have to match in number. While basically the same holds for singular pronouns in the CP, plural pronouns combine most easily with "bare" nouns, less freely with a singular noun preceded by an indefinite article, and least easily with plural nouns. I propose that the different degrees of restrictedness are due to the obligatory presence of NumP in the DP and its "optional" presence in the predicate nominals in the CP.