An existential is the projection into clause syntax of a nominal which is at the same time both an argument and a predicate. Since a nominal, however, lacks overt verbal morphology, it cannot stand as the clause's final predicate: consequently, it is assigned an auxiliary. In fact, the selection of the so called 'existential predicate' - or, more correctly, the finite verb form occurring in existentials, which mostly coincides across languages with an auxiliary - is shown to fall out automatically from the language specific auxiliary selection rule which needs to be established independently for the relevant language. From these basics a number of consequences follow: we provide an explanation for the occurrence of clitic proforms in existentials throughout Romance, for the syntactic essence of the much-debated phenomenon currently labelled 'definiteness effect', as well as for the contrasts between personal vs. impersonal constructions and between existentials and other propositional types (e.g. copular sentences and locative predications).

Outline of a theory of existentials on evidence from Romance

La Fauci, Nunzio;Loporcaro, MIchele
1997

Abstract

An existential is the projection into clause syntax of a nominal which is at the same time both an argument and a predicate. Since a nominal, however, lacks overt verbal morphology, it cannot stand as the clause's final predicate: consequently, it is assigned an auxiliary. In fact, the selection of the so called 'existential predicate' - or, more correctly, the finite verb form occurring in existentials, which mostly coincides across languages with an auxiliary - is shown to fall out automatically from the language specific auxiliary selection rule which needs to be established independently for the relevant language. From these basics a number of consequences follow: we provide an explanation for the occurrence of clitic proforms in existentials throughout Romance, for the syntactic essence of the much-debated phenomenon currently labelled 'definiteness effect', as well as for the contrasts between personal vs. impersonal constructions and between existentials and other propositional types (e.g. copular sentences and locative predications).
1997
Settore L-LIN/01 - Glottologia e Linguistica
Syntax; Existentials; Predicative Nouns; Auxiliary; Locative Clitic; Sardinian; Italian
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11384/126502
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