Chapter 4 - The Determiner PhraseOf course, as we saw previously, caution must be exercised in proposing such
empty heads to ensure that they are independently motivated and not just assumed to
make the analysis work. It turns out that there is a good deal of independent evidence
for the existence of this empty noun.
First, consider the presence of the preposition of which is obligatory in nearly all
structures of this type, with the exception of the ‘pre-determiners’. This is the
preposition we find when there is a noun which takes a DP complement:
(69) a an illustration of [DP the technique]
b a publication of [DP names and addresses]
c the theory of [DP relativity]
d the record of [DP his birth]
This preposition has no meaning in these structures and it is fairly obvious that the
semantic relationships hold between the noun and the following DPs. This can be most
obviously seen from the fact that the verbs from which some of these nouns are formed
are transitive and have no need of the preposition to express their relationship with the
DP complement:
(70) a to illustrate [DP the technique]
b to publish [DP names and addresses]
c to record [DP his birth]
The object of the verb is associated with accusative Case and hence must be in a Case
position. But the object of the noun is not associated with any Case; indeed nouns in
general cannot take bare object. We can account for these observations if we simply
assume that the complement position of a noun is a Caseless position. Given the Case
Filter introduced in the previous chapter, it follows that DPs are not allowed to occupy
such a position at S-structure. There is nothing to prevent a noun from taking a DP
complement at D-structure, however, and thematically it seems to be the case that
many nouns do have DP arguments which all surface as PPs headed by the
meaningless preposition of. We might therefore assume that this preposition is inserted
into the structure at S-structure so that the Case Filter may be satisfied.
Note that the object of a preposition is an accusative position and hence that
prepositions are Case assigners. Inserting of then allows an otherwise Caseless DP to
be assigned Case. Of-insertion is however a very limited phenomenon. It happens with
the DP complements of nouns and adjectives and nowhere else which might be argued
to be a Caseless position:
(71) a a knowledge of karate
b fed up of fish fingers
c *of him to pay his debts
It seems therefore that the appearance of the meaningless of is a good indication of the
presence of a noun or an adjective. In the structure we are considering concerning the
pre-determiner, the appearance of the of can be taken as strong evidence in favour of
the presence of a noun even though one is not visible.
Another argument for the existence of the empty noun in pre-determiner
constructions comes from their interpretation. Compare the following examples: