• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.338-343
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• 2020

This paper provides a semantic account of double nominative constructions in the framework of Autolexical Grammar, which views syntax, semantics, morphology, and other language components as modules generated simultaneously and independently. Some syntactocentric models in the past analyzed double nominatives as a result of possessor raising, ECM or incorporation. This paper provides a semantic explication of double nominatives through function-argument (F/A) structure of internal possession and external possession. The possessum used in double nominatives is a relational noun which takes a possessor as its argument in F/A structure. If the possessor directly combines with the relational noun, then internal possession is generated. If the possessor is a gap in F/A structure, then the argument which is coreferential with the gap combines later with the predicate, resulting in external possession, in which the possessor is in the nominative case. Unlike internal possession, the F/A structure of external possession structurally shows that the sentence is predicated of the possessor.