Acceso usuarios
Tommaso Mattiuzzi
This article presents novel data on the yet unnoticed phenomenon of article-drop in the variety of Livinallongo/Fodom (Ladin). The fundamental aim is to provide a morphosyntactic analysis capturing the following: a) omission of the definite article is only possible in (spatial) PPs and with a specific set of data; b) the noun can be interpreted as a specific definite as well as a weak definite; c) omission interacts with structural properties of the nominal complement like Number features and the structural type of nominal modifiers. The account developed here builds on the hypothesis that despite appearances article-drop contexts in Fodom feature an active D category in their structure, which is licensed by the head noun via phrasal Spell Out (cf. Starke 2009a; 2011a; Baunaz and Lander 2018b; Caha 2009a; 2018a; Pantcheva 2011a, a.o.) and is argued to be superior to alternative accounts in terms of selection of a null D by the P0 head or movement of the noun.
