Genitive case and multiple checking in Basque

This article proposes that Basque genitive case can be checked in two positions: one in bare NPs, and the other in the specifier of Poss, a projection below DP and higher than QP. The first genitive resembles Chomsky’s (1986) inherent genitive case and is restricted to object genitives. The genitive in [spec, Poss] is structural and both subject and object genitives can move to this high position together, thus creating a multiple specifier configuration. As a result, the derived order SO(Q)N displays both superiority and Person Case Constraint effects.

Published online: 20 June 2012
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.187.10art