Títol: "Axial terms in Catalan" a càrrec de Cristina Real Puidgollers (UPF)

Dia: Dijous 31 d'octubre del 2019

Hora: 12.00 h

Lloc:  Sala de reunions 52.701 - 7a planta edifici 52. Roc Boronat - Campus del Poblenou - UPF

Resum: This paper analyses complex prepositions, containing a spatial noun (Chappell & Peyraube 2008) or axial term (Svenonius 2007, 2010) in Catalan. Although there are many studies on adpositions within the generative grammar tradition (Zwarts 1997; Noonan 2010; Svenonius 2010; Terzi 2010; Franco 2016, Manzini & Franco 2016; a.o.), these approaches fail to capture basic semantic and morphosyntactic properties. The present investigation contributes to this gap by setting eyes on two types of complex PPs in Catalan, which show the structure [P+Axial term+of+DP] (1), and [ P+ D +Axial term+of+DP] (2):

(1) a dins de la capsa

     at inside of the box

     ‘inside the box’

(2) al costat de la casa

     at.the flank of the house

     ‘next to the house’

I claim, following Matushansky & Zwart (2018), that axial terms are weak nominals that are related with the DP that appears in the complement of the complex PP by a functional head denoting an inalienable possessive relation between an entity and a kind. The syntactic analysis of complex PPs for Catalan (1) and (2) is depicted in (3) and (4), respectively.

(3) [pP [p a ] [DP [D [n DINS ] ] [nP [n DINS ] [pP [p de ] [DP la capsa ]]]]]

(4) [pP [p a ] [DP [D el ] [nP [n COSTAT ] [pP [p de ] [DP la casa]]]]]

This analysis provides a new insight into the nature of axial terms, weak nominals, and to the syntax and semantics of prepositions of location and possession in general.