The Category P Features, Projections, Interpretation

161
following Siloni (1997), among the options in (91), only (91a) is a valid structure as it
includes T. 49
In light of the above, in what follows I assume clausal PP-modifiers (89a) have the
structure in (94):
(94) ha-ec [ CP še- [ TP T [ PP ba-ya’ar]]] …
the-tree that-
in+the-forest
The value of the empty T in (94) is fixed and set on [present], as in (94’). Note,
that the denotation (reference-time) of present tense coincides with speech-time
(Reichenbach 1947). Thus, arguably it does not have to be morphologically marked
either on the T-head or on its complement. A phonetically empty T [present] is available
only in some languages (e.g. Hebrew, Russian), as witnessed by verbless copular
constructions (e.g. dan yafe, Dan krasiviy, ‘Dan [is] beautiful’).
(94’) ha-ec [ CP še- [ TP T [present] [ PP ba-ya’ar]]] …
the-tree that
in+the-forest
Before I conclude this part of the discussion, the following is worth mentioning.
There are nominals such as ha-tiyul (‘the trip’), ha-te’una (‘the accident’), ha-ason (‘the
disaster’), ha-hatkafa (‘the attack’), that resist clausal PP-modification (95a) (compare
with (95b)). Like the trip in (95a), all of them can be modified by a Locative PP, but not
if it is embedded under C. Since the embedding under C is argued here to be mediated
by T [present] , it is reasonable to examine whether this impossibility is related to the
presence of T [present] .
(95) a. ha-tiyul (*še-) ba-ya’ar (haya) na’im
the-trip that-in+the-forest was pleasant
49 It is worth noting that in Siloni (1997) this does not imply that VPs have to occur with T. Siloni (1997)
shows that English and French reduced (participial) relatives (e.g. [The man [arrested just before the
junction]] is my uncle) are tenseless clausal structures, which means that VPs can be integrated into
syntactic structure without a T. The functional clausal head in these structures is argued to be D, rather
than C.