Post-syntactic Operations and Spellout of Nominals

Abstract

The paper investigates the derivational mechanism of complex nominal expressions in Georgian, a language of Kartvelian (South Caucasian) family. It argues that these structures are derived through syntactic Head-to-head movement as well as post-syntactic operations like Fusion and Merger Under Adjacency which apply after syntactic computation of these structures is completed. By applying three basic word building mechanisms along with the morpheme specific information to be either prefix or suffix, the paper accounts for an array of Mirror Principle violating morpheme orders in the final form of these expressions.