Nominals

Abstract

This chapter deals with the DP and its various layers. The lowest layer is the lexical domain, the NP. On top of the NP, there is a grammatical domain, calledsee Inflectional Phrase (IP), which contains the nominal inflectional categories of number and definiteness. The highest domain is the referential domain, the DP. The noun may be followed by complements and adjuncts, mainly in the form of PPs, and preceded by adjectives or quantifiers. Definiteness may be expressed as a preposed definite article or as a suffix on the noun. A non-modified noun moves to D, but an adjective blocks this movement and the definite article is spelt out as a separate word in D. There are several ways of expressing possession, especially in Norwegian, where the possessor can be either pre- or postnominal. In the other languages it is prenominal. Restrictive relative clauses are right-adjoined to IP, non-restrictive to DP. Universal quantifiers are generated above DP.