On the structure and meaning of NPs in Turkish existentials

Abstract

This paper analyzes the structural and interpretive properties of Noun Phrases (NPs henceforth) in Turkish existential sentences. There are three different types of NPs, namely bare NPs, singular indefinite NPs and plural indefinite NPs, that can appear in existential structures. However, their behavior with respect to their interpretive and discourse characteristics considerably differ from each other. Specifically, bare NPs are obligatorily interpreted as number-neutral and do not introduce discourse referents while this is not the case for the other two NP types. In order to account for the characteristics of bare NPs, I argue for a modified version of the pseudo-incorporation analysis, originally proposed by Öztürk (2005) to account for the behavior of caseless direct objects. Unlike Öztürk, however, I argue that pseudo-incorporation applies only to bare NPs, excluding other NP types.