Nominal ellipsis and prepositional modifiers in Portuguese: a phase-theoretic approach

Abstract Definite determiners in Portuguese are (pro)clitics. As such, they must attach to a full prosodic word at PF. This is achieved by an operation which “fuses” the determiner to the following lexical item. In anaphoric DPs with an elliptical noun modified by a prepositional phrase, fusion to a full preposition (P*) is not possible. This is accounted for by claiming that P*Ps are phases that are sent to Spell-Out as soon as they are formed (“early Spell-Out”); thus, they will not be accessible to fusion with the definite article at the phonological cycle of the higher phase and the derivation crashes because the definite article is not included in a prosodic word. PPs with the dummy preposition de ‘of’ can modify elliptical nouns since dummy de is arguably a morphological reflex of inherent Case assigned by the (elliptical) noun; thus, it does not constitute a phase together with its NP complement. The analysis is then extended to cases where the modifier of the elliptical noun is a clause.