This paper analyzes the structural and interpretive properties of Noun Phrases (NPs henceforth) in Turkish existential sentences. There are three different types of NPs, namely bare NPs, singular indefinite NPs and plural indefinite NPs, that can appear in existential structures. However, their behavior with respect to their interpretive and discourse characteristics considerably differ from each other. Specifically, bare NPs are obligatorily interpreted as number-neutral and do not introduce discourse referents while this is not the case for the other two NP types. In order to account for the characteristics of bare NPs, I argue for a modified version of the pseudo-incorporation analysis, originally proposed by Öztürk (2005) to account for the behavior of caseless direct objects. Unlike Öztürk, however, I argue that pseudo-incorporation applies only to bare NPs, excluding other NP types.

Adı: On the Structure and Meaning of NPs in Turkish Existentials Yazar(lar):EMRAH GÖRGÜLÜ Kapsam:Ulusal İndeks türü:Tam metin bildiri Başlama tarihi:24.06.2016 Bitiş tarihi:25.06.2016 Yayın Yeri:3rd Linguistics and Language Conference Yıl:2016 ISBN:978-605-9207-28-7 -- GÖRGÜLÜ, E. (2016). On the Structure and Meaning of NPs in Turkish Existentials. Presented at the 3rd Linguistics and Language Conference, İstanbul.