ABSTRACT
We propose an analysis for Galician U-lo (can)? (“Where’s the dog?”) constructions, improving upon the explanatory adequacy of Silva-Villar (1996, 1999, 2001) by accounting for enclitic agreeing determiner clitics. We call these verbless DP interrogative constructions (VDICs) owing to syntactic behavior unlike cosmetically similar Romance structures. The current account is informed by null copula analyses (Benmamoun, 2000, 2008), a “true imperative” account (Platzack & Rosengren, 1997), and a small-clause account inspired by Gallego and Uriagereka’s (2016) analysis of split overt copula in Romance, in particular their explanation of estar consisting of ser plus a null stative matrix. We propose that VDICs consist of a DP and a null v, which is apparently selected by the U head base-generated in Force.
