The syntax of information structure in Turkish nominal phrases

Abstract

This thesis aims to introduce a novel approach to the internal structure of Turkish nominal phrases by arguing that Turkish encodes information structure inside nominal phrases, possessing layers such as topic and focus. Rizzi’s (1997) left periphery model is adopted as in previous studies on the Split-DP Hypothesis such as Giusti (1996) and Aboh (2004). First of all, it will be argued that Turkish has a DP layer, and the DP is dominated by a Possessive Phrase (PossP). PossP seemingly equals Rizzi’s (1997) Finiteness Phrase (FinP). Above PossP, topic and focus phrases (TopP and FocP) are respectively positioned. DP-internal constituents such as adjectives, numerals and demonstratives move into these projections, depending on their interpretation. The closing projection of nominal phrases is the Case Phrase (KP), adopted from Kornfilt (2003, 2009), which equals the Force Phrase (FP) in Rizzi (1997). It will also be shown that Turkish nominals license a post-nominal position, hosting backgrounded information, akin to post-verbal position (Erguvanlı, 1984). After drawing an outline of a typical Turkish nominal phrase, it will be argued that both the CP and the DP project their own information structure related phrases, and that the nominal complex is able to move into relevant TopP and FocP inside the CP. It will be further shown that there are restrictions concerning the extraction properties of layered nominal phrases. The genitive-marked phrases have relatively more freedom to move out of the KP, whereas other constituents such as demonstratives and adjectives are not accessible for further operations.