This paper deals with quasi-incorporation, the phenomenon that bare nouns form tight phrasal lexical units with verbs. The data are mainly from Dutch. The semantics of quasi-incorporation is similar to that of real noun-incorporation: the bare noun receives a generic interpretation, and the NV combination denotes a conventional activity. However, the lexical units are phrasal since they are separable in root clauses, and in verb raising clusters. It is shown that such Dutch bare Noun + V combinations (either singular or plural nouns) have two structural interpretations. They are either VPs with an NP that consists of the bare noun only, or they are units of the form [N⁰ V⁰]_V0, and thus a case of adjunction of the bare noun to the verb. The behaviour of these NV combinations under verb raising, in the Dutch periphrastic progressive construction, and with respect to the choice of the correct negative word (geen or niet) is shown to follow from the assumption of two possible structural analyses. Thus, Dutch quasi-incorporation is parallel to the analysis of similar cases of incorporation in Japanese, presented in Iida and Sells (2008). If the bare noun has no argumental role with respect to the verb, it is only the second structural option that is available, that of adjunction.  Quasi-incorporation can be seen as a construction, in which a specific syntactic pattern receives a specific semantic interpretation, that of conventional activity. Thus, the paper argues that the notion ‘construction’ is essential for giving a proper account of the semantics of quasi-noun incorporation.

In this paper, we address the issue of constraints in word formation. We claim that the absence of derivational suffixes within Modern Greek compounds is due to the operation of the so-called Bare-stem constraint, which applies to output configurations. Our analysis builds on different types of compounds from Standard Modern Greek and its dialects. However, we focus mostly on dvandva [V V] compounds, which are unique to Modern Greek among all Indo-European languages. We also discuss a limited number of counter-examples, and show that they are only apparent exceptions to the operation of the constraint. We argue that most of them result from a reanalysis procedure or refer to lexicalizations and loan words, which do not usually obey the rules of the language.

The paper also adds the discussion about the interaction between derivation and compounding. It is argued that the two processes intermingle in such a way that compounding cannot be treated separately from derivation. This conclusion is advocated by the postulation of a morphologically proper constraint restricting the form of compounds with a derived item as left-hand constituent, as well as by the unclear order according to which the two processes occur.

The identification of a compound as endocentric or exocentric depends on the notion of head: if a compound has a head (or two), it is called endocentric; if it has no head, it is called exocentric. Exocentricity, however, has been usually assumed as a unitary notion, exactly because the notion of head has been generally interpreted as a unitary notion. In this paper we will first provide typologically based data on the dimension and limits of exocentricity, and then we will argue that the notion of head can be split into three different subparts: categorial head, semantic head and morphological head. Correspondingly, the notion of exocentricity can be split into categorial exocentricity, semantic exocentricity and morphological exocentricity. Our approach, based on features of the constituents and not on constituents as a whole, will hopefully provide a new analysis of exocentricity in compounding.

The aim of this study is to show that foot structure plays a key role in the organisation of the prosodic system of Irabu, a north-west variety of Miyako Ryukyuan, spoken in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. By introducing foot structure I give a natural explanation to two crucial features of Irabu prosody, i.e. bimoraic constituency and potential iterativity of prosodic features (High and Low tones). With this new approach, Irabu prosody will be shown to be characterised by a foot-based alternating rhythm of tone features, which is a typical manifestation of a cross-linguistically recurrent alternating rhythmic principle, or the Principle of Rhythmic Alternation (Selkirk 1984, Kubozono 1993).

This paper proposes a hyperprojection analysis for experiencer-object psych verbs in English. Specifically, we argue that a surface experiencer undergoes LF movement into the specifier of the functional projection, called “Point-of-View”, that occurs above Tense Phrase. The present analysis provides a unified explanation for a wide range of otherwise mysterious configurational properties of this verb class, such as backward binding, crossover cancellation, anti-local binding, and scope ambiguity. To the extent that the proposed analysis is tenable, two important consequences follow. First, our analysis indicates that the purely syntactic analyses of experiencer-object psych verbs based solely on their θ-theoretic properties, which have been dominant in the generative literature, is untenable. Second, apparently peculiar properties of the verbs in this class like those noted above can be derived as a natural consequence of their often-neglected cognitive-semantic characteristic as subjective predicates (Brekke 1976) and its structural repercussion in the form of hyperprojection.

Akan (Niger-Congo, Kwa) is a tone language spoken mainly in Ghana. This paper deals with the tonal behavior of Akan nouns. First, the tone of nouns in isolated forms is presented. It is pointed out that the affixes have their own tones, and that there are five tone types of the roots. Also, it is shown that the unit for tone distribution is a syllable, not a mora.

  Second, the tone of possessive noun phrases is discussed. Dolphyne (1986, 1988) observes that there are two tonal patterns of noun roots in possessive noun phrases regardless of their tone types, and based on this difference, she classifies nouns into two classes. The situation in Asante dialect, however, is more complicated because Class I possessive noun phrases seem to have undergone a historical ‘tone shift’, as Stewart (1983) and Dolphyne (1986) have argued.

  While Stewart (1983) defines the tone shift as deferment of the change in tone register, I present my analysis along the lines of Dolphyne (1986), who defines the tone shift as a shift of the floating H to the root initial syllable. Additionally, although both Stewart and Dolphyne explain that the floating H is lexically posited in front of the roots of Class I, I propose that the floating H should historically be attributed to the possessive clitic itself. Lastly, I emphasize that the critical difference in tones of possessive phrases between Class I and Class II is that in the former class, the tone of the prefix is not realized.