The Category P Features, Projections, Interpretation

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2.1 The classification of P
2.1.1 The criteria
The properties used in the linguistic literature to define a given category as
lexical or functional can be divided along the following four criteria: 1
i. Class type
ii. Morphological properties
iii. Meaning and function
iv. Syntactic properties
In what follows I will discuss briefly each of the above criteria, and evaluate its
reliability for the task at hand.
(i) Class type
The typical lexical categories N, A, V are known to consist of many members
(hundreds), and to be productive, namely accepting new members. They are referred
to as open class categories. In contrast, functional categories such as C, T or D, are
rather small (consisting of tens of members, rather than of hundreds) and nonproductive
(or minimally productive). Therefore they are referred to as closed class
categories (Emonds 1985, Grimshaw 1991, among others). This is a robust and wellfounded
generalization, and therefore it provides a solid criterion.
(ii) Morphological properties
Members of the different lexical categories can be derivationally related (e.g.
destroy [V]; destruction [N]; destructive [A]). This property is often referred to as
flexionality (following Jespersen 1924). In contrast, members of the functional
categories are non-flexional, namely they are neither the output nor the input of a
morphological derivation (e.g. if, whether, that, the). Furthermore, members of the
functional categories can be sometimes affixal, clitic-like or even abstract sets of
features (e.g. C [-wh] in English matrix clauses; C [+wh] in Russian or Hebrew matrix
1 I do not mention theory-internal characteristics (cf. Fukui 1986, Abney 1987).