Structure and Derivation of the Specificational Sentence and Related Constructions

Abstract

The present article discusses the syntactic properties and derivation of the specificational sentence and related constructions. We argue that at the basis of the specificational sentence and related constructions is what we call the Core Noun Phrase, whose outer argument delimits the semantic domain of the head Noun while its inner argument exhaustively specifies the semantic content of the head Noun as delimited by the outer argument. With the inner argument focalized (moved to SpecFocP), we obtain the specificational sentence, while other related constructions are subsequently derived by movement from this structure. The idea that the focalized constituent has the semantic function of exhaustively specifying the semantic domain of the constituent containing the variable has its roots in the relation between a wh-question and its felicitous answer. The connectivity phenomenon involving various binding relations provides a syntactic basis for the present analysis. The paper also proposes an analysis of a certain type of circumstantial adverbial clause being syntactically derived from the Core Noun Phrase.