Selection, idioms, and the structure of nominal phrases with and without classifiers

Abstract

It is common to hypothesize that in classifier and non-classifier languages alike the various functional heads (determiner/demonstrative, numeral, classifier) each head their own projection, so that the maximal projection of the nominal phrase is not NP but something like DP. We evaluate the predictions this makes regarding selection and verb-object idioms in English, a non-classifier language, and in Korean and Vietnamese, two classifier languages. These predictions are not upheld, and nominals act very differently from clauses and PPs, which are headed by functional heads. Selection and idioms show that the maximal projection of the nominal must be a projection of the lexical N itself, not a functional element. We develop such an analysis of nominals, and show how it accounts for data that was taken to motivate the DP Hypothesis.