Resumen de Much ado about nothing features and zeros in Germanic noun phrases

Kersti Börjars, Mark Donohue

• In this paper, we argue for a severely restricted use of zero morphemes and against the use of features which are not strictly motivated by the distribution of the element with which the feature is assumed to be associated. We consider an element to have a particular value for a feature only if the element in question can occur exclusively in environments where that feature value is present on some other element and never in environments where that feature has another value. We apply this definition of features and feature values to noun phrases in Germanic, particularly to Dutch and Danish. We use Optimality Theory in conjunction with our approach to features and values and show that in this way, the distribution of features relating to definiteness, number and gender can be correctly predicted for these languages. We then consider the consequences this view of features has for the choice of an approach to morphology.