On Left Branch Extraction and Postposing of Determiners in Bosnian
On Left Branch Extraction and Postposing of Determiners in Bosnian

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this paper is to support the universality of Abney’s (1987) DP Hypothesis. Some linguists assume that in languages without articles the noun phrases are NPs not DPs. Even though Bosnian does not have articles it has demonstratives and indefinite determines and in this paper I claim that these elements occupy the head D position, hence the noun phrases in Bosnian do project a DP layer above NP. I also challenge one of the strongest arguments against the DP-analysis of Bosnian nominal expressions, which comes from the phenomenon of Left Branch Extraction, by adopting a Copy and Delete analysis. The second part of this paper deals with the apparent postposing of determiners within the stylistically marked noun phrases.Some linguists suggest that these elements are in fact adjectives rather than determiners. I argue against this claim and posit a new analysis by which the head D has an edge feature [EF] in stylistically marked constructions in Bosnian which triggers the movement of the complement of D to the specifier position (Spec DP). This analysis proves that determiners in Bosnian are not adjectives and that they have a fixed position within noun phrases.The paper is written within the theoretical framework of Generative grammar and is presented in the Minimalist program developed by Chomsky (1995).

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