Two Pronominal Copulas and the Syntax of Nonverbal Predication in Hebrew

Ivy Sichel
City University of New York Graduate Center
isichel@email.gc.cuny.edu


The syntax and semantics of verbless predication in Hebrew has been relatively well studied (Doron, 1983; Rapoport, 1987; Rothstein, 1995; Greenberg, 1995), focussing primarily on the conditions on the distribution of a pronominal element in verbless sentences, as in 1:

(1a)

Rina talmid-a / nexmad-a / *giveret cohen rina student-f,s / nice-f,s / mrs. cohen

(1b)

Rina hi talmid-a / nexmad-a / giveret cohen rina pron-3rd,f,s student-f,s / nice-f,s / mrs. cohen

However, there exists an additional pronominal, possible with a limited class of nonverbal predicates, as in 2:

(2)

Rina zot *talmid-a / *nexmad-a / talmid-a axat / giveret cohen rina z-f,s student-f,s / nice-f,s / a student-f,s / mrs. cohen

I will argue that the difference in these pronominals' distribution follows directly from a difference in functional category. Adapting to Minimalist terminology Doron's original insight that the pronominal in 1b lexicalizes an Infl node, it will be proposed that while "hi" lexicalizes an Agrs node, the pronominal "zot" lexicalizes the lower functional node, Agro. This conclusion relies, crucially, on the assumption that Agro is indeed the domain of spec-head agreement in 1a: generating "zot" in this position precludes feature checking of the predicate. Specific predicates, nominals of inherent gender, and names, on the other hand, are possible with "zot" because being independetly specified for gender features they are licensed as maximal projections.

In support of an analysis of the sentences in 1a as AgroP projections, two types of evidence are presented. First, it will be shown that a morphologically full Agr is required in all Hebrew sentences. Motivation for this node as distinct from Agrs is provided by a contrast in definiteness effect, correlating with a restriction found with thematic objects. This is explained, at least superficially, if the definiteness restriction is associated with a particular case, objective.

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