On the non-existence of asymmetric DOM in Spanish

SAAB, ANDRÉS; PABLO ZDROJEWSKI

LINGUISTIC INQUIRY

MIT press

Año: 2021 vol. 52 p. 852 - 866

0024-3892

Kalin and Weisser (2019) observe that Spanish, among other DOM languages, allow for what they called asymmetric DOM in coordination, that is, a DP coordinate structure in which an unmarked DP and a marked DP are conjoined. Given that coordinate structures are islands, asymmetric DOM challenges movement analyses for DOM. Yet, we show that alleged cases of asymmetric DOM in Spanish don´t involve DP coordination, but coordination of a larger structure plus TP-ellipsis. Evidence involves binding, extraction, fragment answers and association with focus. Our conclusion is that asymmetric DOM doesn´t exist in Spanish, a fact in consonance with movement analyses.