Construct states at the PF interface

The paper claims that the Semitic Construct state defines a prosodic domain of Case checking. It has been common lore in generative grammar that the domain of Case checking is a syntactic one. In concert with recent proposals, I argue that Case can also be checked at PF; the domain of Case checking is then defined in prosodic terms. The properties of constructs follow straightforwardly. The treatment extends naturally to nonnominal constructs, which, in turn, provide additional evidence in favor of the prosodic analysis. A morphological parameter derives the difference between languages allowing construct states and those which do not. Finally, contra standard assumption I show that there is no indefiniteness spread in construct states but only definiteness spread.