A phase-based approach to the construct state

This paper presents a phase-based analysis of the derivation of the status constructus (or construct state). That analysis is built on two arguments. First, I contend that a construct state in Classical/Standard Arabic contains a phase the head of which is K. Second, I claim that the head noun is a full indefinite DP the functional projection of which is similar to regular definite DPs. I maintain that a process of repeated External Merge merging the genitive phrase with the head noun culminates in a KP. Because of a ban on the co-occurrence of two syntactic functional projections of the same type in the same Spell-Out domain, I argue that the head noun is moved via Internal Merge from the complement of the phase head K to the edge of the phase. Since K is a phase boundary, it provides protection for the head noun DP from the genitive phrase DP, allowing the phase domain to be spelled out. That the genitive phase DP must be assigned only a genitive case, while the head noun DP can be assigned any one of the three cases can be derived from Chomsky’s (1998, 1999, 2001) Phase Impenetrability Condition.