The syntax of demonstratives. A parametric analysis

The contribution proposes an interpretation of the crosslinguistic syntactic behavior of the demonstrative elements within the nominal domain, in a parametric perspective. On the basis of the empirical evidence coming from a sample of Indo-European and non Indo-European languages (Longobardi&Guardiano 2008), I will show that the different configurations available are predictable on the basis of the setting of four syntactic parameters (and their interaction with other properties) that determine: the positions of demonstratives in the DP, their interpretation according to such positions, their co-occurrence with the (definite) article. The universal DP structure that I assume has been sketched and defined within the general framework of the ‘DP hypothesis’ (see for instance Bernstein 2001, Longobardi 2001, Longobardi&Guardiano 2008).