The Semantic Asymmetry Between Double Genitives And Possessive Partitives

Double genitive and possessive partitive constructions have long been debated over in literature. Barker (1998) and Zamparelli (1998), analyzing respectively mainly from semantic and syntactic point of views, propose that the two constructions are variants of the same partitive construction.This paper argues, instead, that there exists a semantic asymmetry between double genitive and possessive partitive constructions. It examines the definiteness value of the nominals in the embedded positions which preposition of takes as prepositional complement in the two types of DPs. And then Heim's familiarity-novelty condition is introduced into the investigation. Thus the nature, of whole DP of either type is revealed: possessive partitives are definite and familiar while double genitives, are indefinite and novel. This nature determines whether the two constructions receive a contextual interpretation or not: possessive partitives permit the contextual interpretation whereas double genitives do not, which explains why there is a semantic difference between the two types of constructions.Spine of the problems which do not seem to be in accordance with the analysis are also presented and examined in this paper, with some solved and some left for future research.