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In:Advances in the Syntax of DPs: Structure, agreement, and case
Edited by Anna Bondaruk, Gréte Dalmi and Alexander Grosu
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 217] 2014
► pp. 61–94

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Polish equatives as symmetrical structures

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Published online: 14 October 2014
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https://doi.org/10.1075/la.217.03bon
The chapter focuses on the syntactic structure of true equatives in Polish, i.e. those sentences that contain two proper names or two pronouns flanking the pronominal copula to . These clauses differ considerably from both predicational and specificational sentences as regards verbal agreement and the Person-Case Constraint (PCC). Arguments are offered to prove that the two differences Polish equatives exhibit can be accounted for by positing a special symmetrical structure for this type of copular clause. The analysis is a modified version of Pereltsvaig’s (2001, 2007) proposal, based on Moro (2006) as well as Chomsky (2013). It relies on movement of one of the DPs from within a symmetrical structure to break up the initial symmetry which is triggered by the the need to label the symmetrical structure.
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