The Category P Features, Projections, Interpretation

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the lexicon (see 5.2.4), but the external argument slot is either assigned to a syntactic
argument, or is identified with the external argument of a syntactic argument
(Rothstein 2001). To keep the two apart, I will use the same notation as in chapter 4
marking the external and internal argument slots Ext and Int, and the theta-roles as
Θ Agent/Theme .
The upshot of the lexical operation that underlies the le-nominal sequence in
Hebrew object gap constructions is schematisized in (30) (I ignore for now the
suppressed Agent of the nominal, see the discussion below). In order to distinguish
between an e-N and the nominal created in (30), I will label the latter le N and its
projection le NP.
(30) Lexical externalization in Hebrew (preliminary)
[P-affix]le + [N] e-N [N] le N
e, Θ Theme e, Ext Th
Viewed this way, le- in (30) is comparable to verbal prefixes in Russian, some
of which are homophonous with prepositions (e.g. na, ‘on’). 21 Thus, one may wonder
in what sense le- in (30) is still a preposition, rather than a regular derivational affix.
Hebrew affixes that derive nouns from nominal stems are right-adjoined (e.g.
yald-ut, ‘child-hood’). But le- is to the left of the nominal (e.g. le-kri’a, ‘to-reading’),
as typical of Hebrew prepositions. Further, prepositions are licensed in the syntactic
structure either if they have φ-features (P C ), or through an external slot (P R ). The latter
is exercised by (almost) all prepositions, including the ones that can be associated
with φ-features such as in or on (see chapter 2, section 2.2). Thus, to have an external
slot (Ext), namely to project a property denoting phrase, is typical of Ps. If le- is a
prepositional element that does not have Ext, it is reasonable to assume that it would
force the nominal to have one (by externalization of the internal theta-role), as in (30).
In other words, ascribing externalization to a prepositional element is reasonable, as it
reflects the typical property of P, to have an Ext. I know of no derivational nominal
affix in Hebrew that does the same.
21 Verbal prefixes in Russian often induce aspectual distinctions (e.g. pisal, ‘was writing’, na-pisal,
‘has written’).