Recursion in NP: pseudopartitive measures require complementation, not specification
Keywords: locality, pseudopartitives, measure phrases, nominals, cyclicity, recursion, syntax
TL;DR: A-bar movement shows us pseudopartitive NPs (three boxes of books) are bracketed [three [boxes of books]], not [[three boxes] of books].
Abstract: Nominals taking nominal complements (recursion inside NP) has been more controversial than clausal recursion, and so has the question of whether there is cyclicity within the nominal domain (Stowell, 1989; Frank and Kroch, 1994; Frank, 2002; Chomsky, 2008; Kayne, 2008; Citko, 2014). I provide evidence from pseudopartitive NPs (e.g., 'three boxes of reports'), that there is such recursion and cyclicity. As measure phrases can be stacked in these ('three boxes of folders of reports'), I test for effects of successive cyclic movement through each measure phrase, and find that A-bar movement (both leftward - relativization, and rightward - extraposition) is restricted in the way one would expect if each measure phrase induced additional cycles. This, I argue, supports the bracketing [three [boxes of reports]] rather than [[three boxes] of reports] (in line with Stickney 2009), contrary to some recent, semantically-motivated work on pseudopartitives (Schwarzschild 2006).
Submission Number: 175
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