NP-Ellipsis Patterns in Spanish Binominals: A New Empirical Observation and its Theoretical Implications

In this contribution, I present new evidence against any attempt to unify pseudo-partitive/quantificational and qualitative binominals (e.g., un grupo/montón de estudiantes ‘a group/lot of students’, una mierda de departamento ‘a shit of an apartment’). The observation is that pseudo-partitive/ quantificational nouns, unlike expressive nouns, license NP-ellipsis of the de-phrase (e.g., A: Vinieron estudiantes? ‘Did students come?’, B: Un montón (de estudiantes) ‘a lot (of students)’). Assuming that the codas of pseudo-partitive and quantificational nouns are NPs realized as primeval genitives (Pesetsky 2013), NP-ellipsis of the usual type is correctly predicted under wellknown licensing and identity conditions. In turn, the de-phrase in qualitative binominals is the specifier of an Equative Phrase, which relates the de-NP to an empty nominal ranging over properties (Saab 2022a). As I show, NP-ellipsis is banned in such environments for principled reasons. Thus, the ellipsis pattern is accounted for if the relevant binominals have a different structural source for genitive marking.