The Syntactic Analysis Of The POSS-ING Construction

This paper, in which the Lexicalist's view held by Chomsky (1970) is well observed under the framework of PP Theory (Principles & Parameters), is centered on the following three questions about POSS-ING constructions: (1) What is the categorial status of the POSS-ING construction? (2) How is it generated into being? (3) Is it endocentric or exocentric? After an exhaustive exploration of its syntactic features, several possible syntactic analyses are effected within the framework of X-bar theory, from which results the finding that POSS-ING constructions are not NPs, VPs, IPs, or CPs, but actually DPs projected by an unfilled head D. The corner stone of this DP analysis of the POSS-ING constructions lies in the fact that the Nom-ING enters the syntactic computational system as a functional head, which C-selects VP as its complement to project into a NomP. The [+N, -V] features of the Nom-ING lead to the same categorial features of its maximal projection NomP, which thus can be C-selected by the head D to form an overall DP structure of the POSS-ING. Since the unfilled D can assign Genitive Case to its specifier, the genitive-marked NP in the POSS-ING construction can pass the Case Filter. In addition, the arguments for the proposed analysis are presented theoretically, empirically, and diachronically in order to justify the fact that the X-bar theory is still able to accommodate the POSS-ING construction, which was once thought to be an exception.