Irish Noun Phrases

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to provide an adequate theoretical description of the syntax of Modern Irish noun-phrases.^l We shall be chiefly concerned with the contrast between ‘simple’ noun-phrases, illustrated in (1a), and complex nominals involving possessor subjects, which we shall term CONSTRUCT STATE NOMINALS (CSNs), shown in (1 b):

• 1. a. an fear ciúin the man quiet ‘the quiet man’

• b. *(an) mac ciúin an fhir (the) son quiet the man-GEN ‘the man’s quiet son’

Géronte: Il me semble que vous les placez autrement qu’ils ne sont; que le couer est du côté gauche, et le foie du côté droit. Sganarelle: Oui, cela était autrefois ainsi, mais nous avons changé tout cela. (Molière, Le médecin malgré lui, II iv.)

This chapter is, essentially, an extended version of Duffield (forthcoming b.). It offers a revision of several previous analyses of Irish noun-phrases, including Duffield (1991b, 1992, 1993a). That work in turn owed much to earlier work by Guilfoyle (1988), Borer (1988), Ritter (1988), and Mohammad (1988).