Nominal licensing via dependent case: The view from pseudo noun incorporation in Wolof

Abstract

Bare nominals in Wolof can occur in the object position and they must be adjacent to the verb that subcategorizes for them. This is a property usually attributed to pseudo noun incorporation (PNI). However, there are two circumstances under which this adjacency requirement is obviated: a DP is introduced between the subject and the PNI‐ed object, or the latter is ‐moved. While these are disparate phenomena, a dependent case analysis of nominal licensing can account for PNI in Wolof. I assume that all nominals must be licensed with case, with case assignment being calculated in terms of dependent case. If this is not possible, a last resort strategy arises, namely surface adjacency with the verb. This analysis provides a unified analysis of PNI in Wolof.