Coordinated bare definites

Abstract

Recent work on the syntax and semantics of functional projections within the noun phrase has had as one goal an explanation for the crosslinguistic distribution of "bare" (determinerless) noun phrases. This article provides an account for an apparent anomaly: the relatively free occurrence of bare noun phrases under coordination. We argue that this construction involves coordination of projections below the DP level, with the coordinated structure subsequently raising to Spec,DP. Our analysis accounts for the fact that these nominals are endowed with uniqueness conditions, but only in some cases, and for a number of other hitherto undocumented facts, including complex constraints on modification. © 2003 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.