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What for Internally
Author(s) -
Leu Thomas
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
syntax
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.587
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1467-9612
pISSN - 1368-0005
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9612.2008.00113.x
Subject(s) - complementizer , linguistics , noun phrase , german , projection (relational algebra) , complement (music) , head (geology) , noun , trace (psycholinguistics) , norwegian , sort , mathematics , computer science , philosophy , arithmetic , syntax , algorithm , biochemistry , chemistry , geomorphology , complementation , gene , phenotype , geology
. The present paper is concerned with the internal structure of Germanic what for phrases. A comparative look at what for across Dutch, German, Norwegian, Swedish, and Swiss German leads to a drastic revision of the traditional view on what for . The proposal recognizes an (often silent) functional nominal SORT as a constitutive part of the what for construction. For is analyzed as a prepositional complementizer whose complement contains the (silent) nominal and the trace of what , to which for assigns accusative Case. The projection of for , forP, is argued to sit in a specifier position in the extended projection of the head noun, similar to adjectival modifiers on a Cinquean view. What moves out of forP into the left periphery of the noun phrase.