European portuguese possessives and the structure of DP

Abstract

The main aim of this paper is to analyse, in a comparative perspective, the category of possessives in European Portuguese possessives as for their X and XP nature and to relate their internal to their external syntax within the DP structure, mainly centred on the possibilities of co-ordination and focalisation of possessives. It will be proposed that both pre-nominal and post-nominal possessives can be focalised, that the nature of contrastive focus that affects prenominal possessives does not argue in favour of their X nature and that the focalisation of prenominal and post-nominal possessives does not justify any functional category related with informational structure in the DP.