Bare plurals in the left periphery in German and Italian

Abstract

Chierchia’s comparative analysis of nominals based on the two features [± arg] and [± pred] has lead to many discussions on the semantics of nominals in argument positions and predicate positions. On the other hand, many syntactic results about left dislocation and topicalization have been accumulated. In this paper, we will try to elucidate possibilities of bare plurals in the left periphery and differentiate their readings. By examining data from Italian and German we claim that different demands on foregoing contexts are organized as constructions, as far as the left periphery is concerned. In addition, those constructions also reflect an organization of discourse.