How to miss your preposition (with Marika Lekakou)
(EN)
Lekakou, Marika
(EN)
Πανεπιστήμιο Ιωαννίνων. Τμήμα Φιλολογίας
(EL)
Lekakou, Marika
(EN)
In this paper we discuss so-called P-drop, i.e. the omission of the preposition se ‘at’ incertain locative and directional contexts in Greek. We highlight the relevance of the simultaneous omission of the definite determiner and bring out the syntactic and semantic properties that the phenomenon at hand shares with pseudo-/semantic incorporation. We observe that P-drop is only possible with nouns that denote stereotypical locations, i.e. locations which are moved to or spent time at regularly, in order to perform there an institutionalized activity. Our proposal is to treat P-drop in Greek as another instance of pseudo-incorporation, which we implement syntactically as LF movement of the bare noun to the verb. The account derives the cluster of properties observed, while at the same time doing away with unpronounced P and Dheads in the construction.
(EN)
