Empirical Issues in Syntax and Semantics 9 (EISS 9 ... - CSSP - CNRS

In the following, we will give a tentative analysis for DP-external EIs that provides answers to
these questions, even if we have to leave certain problems unsolved.
4.1. Position
In section 2.1 we showed that EIs fill the head position of the DegP, which is an extended
functional projection of the adjective phrase. Therefore, EIs in external position must be located
in a head position as well, given the standard structure preservation requirement that ‘the landing
site of head movement must always be another head’ (Roberts 2001:113). 7 In order to provide a
head position for the EI, we therefore need an extended projection that embeds the entire DP. Of
course, it would be rather ad hoc to just stipulate such a projection solely to account for external
sau. However, there are independent arguments for such an additional projection. For instance,
Kallulli and Rothmayr (2008) argue for a quantifier phrase (QP) above the DP in order to deal
with structures like (ein) so ein cooler Typ ‘(a) such a cool guy’ in Bavarian German and argue
that the intensifying element so ‘such/so’ fills the head of the QP.
(38) [ QP so [ DP ein [ NP [ DegP cooler] [ NP Typ]]]]
However, we think that Kallulli and Rothmayr’s (2008) analysis of so is not adequate for various
reasons. In brief, as shown by Lenerz and Lohnstein (2005) in an earlier study (not mentioned by
Kallulli and Rothmayr 2008), so should better be analyzed as phrasal instead of being a head. 8
In order to account for preposed so, Lenerz and Lohnstein (2005) therefore propose that it may
be raised to a specifier position of the DP, a solution which is not available for EIs, since they,
as heads, cannot occur in such a position.
We therefore still need to provide a proper landing side for external EIs. Even if Kallulli
and Rothmayr’s (2008) proposal may be problematic for so, it can be a good starting point
for EIs, at least for the syntactic side of the problem. Their approach is based on the general
proposal put forward by Matthewson (2001), who, based on a semantic analysis of quantification
in St’át’imcets (Salish), argues that what is traditionally considered to be a DP should be
decomposed into a D- and a Q-projection, as in (39), such that a quantifier does not take an
NP-complement but an entire DP. A similar structure is proposed for syntactic reasons, amongst
others, by Giusti (1991) to account for phrases like all die Studenten ‘all the students’ in (40),
in which there is both a quantifier and a determiner.
(39) [ QP Q [ DP D [ NP N]]] (40) [ QP all [ DP die [ NP Studenten]]]
Even if it is not straightforwardly obvious why sau and its kin should be able to occur in this position,
we propose to take Matthewson’s (2001) decomposition and the basic insights of Kallulli
and Rothmayr (2008) as a starting point and propose that sau is moved to the head of QP when
it occurs in external position. 9
7 We cannot delve into the recent discussion concerning head movement, that is, whether there is genuine syntactic
head movement or whether it is rather a PF-phenomenon, cf. amongst many others, Koopman and Szabolcsi (2000);
Boeckx and Stjepanovic (2001); Chomsky (2001); Matushansky (2006). However, if our analysis of EIs as the head
of DegP is right, then the external EIs seem to support syntactic movement since, as shown in the previous section,
the movement comes with a crucial semantic effect.
8 Zimmermann (2011) discusses further problems of Kallulli and Rothmayr’s (2008) approach.
9 According to the approaches alluded to in the main text, external EIs are not really external since the QP is part
of what is traditionally understood as a DP.
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