A MINIMALIST APPROACH TO CONCORD IN NOUN PHRASES
Enrique Mallén · Theoretical Linguistics · 1997
This article presents an analysis of the structure of DPs in Germanic within the Minimalist theory of Chomsky (1993). Under this framework, parametric variation between languages is conditioned purely by functional morphology. The rich nominal morphology of German is argued to be responsible for many of the differences between German and other languages with respect to the distribution of nominal constituents. Particular attention is paid to the prenominal positioning of proper nouns and attributive adjectives. Both elements are shown to attain their surface position by raising operations, which are triggered by independent morphological features