Why all John’s friends are Dutch, not German; on differences in West Germanic in the interaction between universal quantifiers and genitives

WHY ALL JOHN’S FRIENDS ARE DUTCH, NOT GERMAN: ON DIFFERENCES IN WEST GERMANIC IN THE INTERACTION BETWEEN UNIVERSAL QUANTIFIERS AND GENITIVES Robert Cirillo* Abstract: Unlike English and Dutch, German does not allow a genitive to follow a universal quantifier: (i) All John’s friends... (ii) Al Jans vrienden... (Dutch) (iii) *All(e) Johanns Freunde... (German) In this article I show that this discrepancy results from two facts. Firstly, the German Saxon Genitive is a true case ending assigned in [Spec, NP] or [Spec, PossP] while in Dutch and English genitive case cannot be assigned at the N or n level (without a preposition) and the Saxon Genitive is more like a possessive adjective, initiating as the head of PossP and terminating in D. Secondly, in Germanic, D or [Spec, DP] must be overtly occupied in case of definiteness, and if the D node is already overtly occupied, and if genitive case has already been assigned, there is no motivation for moving a genitive phrase to the D level. I also show that Germanic dative of possession constructions (possessor doubling) can be explained within the same framework. Finally, there is a brief discussion of the potential applicability of this analysis to Scandinavian. Keywords: universal quantifier, genitive, possessive adjective, definiteness, Germanic 1. Introduction Unlike English and Dutch, German does not allow a genitive form to follow a universal quantifier: (1) a. b. c. all John’s friends al Jans vrienden *all(e) Johanns Freunde (Dutch) (German) There are also differences in the position and in the manner in which genitive case is assigned in the three languages: (2) (3) a. b. c. a. b. c. (4) * a. All friends of John`s *All friends John’s ?All friends of John *Alle vrienden van Jans all friends of Jan’s *Alle vrienden Jans all friends Jan’s Alle vrienden van Jan all friends of Jan *Alle Freunde von Johanns all friends of Johann’s University of Amsterdam, Afdeling Algemene Taalwetenschap, R. J. . (Dutch) 48 Robert b. c. Alle Freunde Johanns all friends Johann’s Alle Freunde von Johann all friends of Johann Cirillo (German) In this article I will demonstrate that these differences are due to the convergence of two facts. Firstly, the Saxon Genitive in German is a true genitive case ending assigned in [Spec, NP] or [Spec, PossP] while in Dutch and English genitive case cannot be assigned at the N or n level (without a preposition) and the Saxon Genitive is more like a possessive adjective, initiating as the head of a Possessive Phrase and ending up in D. Secondly, there is a requirement in the Germanic languages that the D node, that is, D or [Spec, DP], be overtly occupied in the event of definiteness, and if the D node is in fact already overtly occupied and genitive case has already been assigned there is no motivation for the movement of a genitive phrase to the D level. I will also show that dative of possession (possessor doubling) constructions common throughout the Germanic languages can be explained within the same framework. Examples of such constructions are as follows: (5) a. b. c. d. Hem z’n boek1 him his house Däm Pitter singe Frönde the.DAT Pitter his friends Per sitt hus Per his house Dem Mann sein Hut the.DAT man his hat (Non-Standard Dutch) (Kölsch, spoken in and around Cologne) (Norwegian) (German) Finally, it will be shown that the present analysis is potentially applicable to the Scandinavian languages. The organization of the article is as follows: In section 2 I will lay out my theoretical foundations and assumptions. In section 3 I will say a few words about the Saxon Genitive and also non-Saxon genitive phrases, and about how the genitive case is assigned in the West Germanic languages. In section 4 I will discuss the D-position in the West Germanic languages if a universal quantifier is involved. In section 5 I present my analysis of the data presented at the beginning of this introduction. Section 6 covers possessive dative (possessor doubling) constructions. Section 7 is a brief look at the Scandinavian languages, and section 8 presents a summary. 1 Den Besten (2006: 109). It is the use of a pronoun such as hem in the possessor position that renders this phrase non-standard. The use of a non-pronominal, such as de jongen z’n boek (the boy his book) or Jan z’n boek (Jan his book) would be highly colloquial but not ungrammatical. I have used a non-standard example here only to clearly demonstrate that the possessor is in the dative. Only pronouns are overtly marked for case in Dutch. Why all John’s friends are Dutch, not German… 49 2. Theoretical foundations 2.1 Distinct analyses of genitive phrases and possessive adjectives Genitive phrases and possessive adjectives in the West Germanic languages have certain characteristics in common. They have similar semantics, since both indicate possession, they have similar positioning and they indicate definiteness in prenominal position: (6) a. b. John’s house... His house... Because of these commonalities one might be tempted to analyse genitives and possessive adjectives as belonging to the same syntactic category and as having the same base-position and landing site. There are, however, several compelling arguments against such a uniform analysis. One argument is that genitives and possessive adjectives are not in the same case. In examples (7a) and (7b) from German the noun Tochter ‘daughter’ is in the nominative case. Both components of the genitive phrase ihres Vaters ‘her father’s’ in (7a) are in the genitive case. However, the possessive adjective seine ‘his’ in (7b) is in the nominative case because it must agree in case with the noun it modifies. (7) a. b. Sie ist ganz ihres Vaters Tochter. she is totally her father’s daughter Sie ist ganz seine Tochter. she is totally his daughter Genitive phrases and possessive adjectives also differ in Φ-feature agreement. The possessive adjective seine (his) in (7b) is feminine singular like the noun it modifies. The genitive phrase in (7a) shows no such agreement. Another major difference between possessive adjectives and genitive phrases is that they differ in positioning and definiteness. Observe the following German examples: (8) a. b. c. d. Johanns Freunde… Johann’s friends Seine Freunde… his friends Freunde Johanns… friends Johann’s *Freunde seine… friends his (definite) (definite) (indefinite) Possessive adjectives in German are definite and prenominal. Genitives need not be either. The genitive in (8c), for example is post-nominal and the phrase is indefinite. 50 Robert Cirillo Possessive adjectives are also not interchangeable with other possessive or genitive forms. The following examples from Italian and English show instances in which a possessive adjective is impossible: (9) a. b. (10) a. b. c. Una mia foto di te… a my photo of you *Una mia foto tua… a my photo your That book is Mary’s. That book is hers. *That book is her. Unlike genitive phrases, (...truncated)