ZYMAN IN SNIPPETS

Two squibs by graduate student Erik Zyman have been published in the latest issue of Snippets. The first argues that gestures and nonlinguistic objects can occur in DP positions, and when they do, the relevant DPs are subject to the Case Filter. The second argues that interjections can take complements and project InterjPs—i.e., that they select and project exactly like Ns, Vs, As, and Ps. A generalization that emerges from the two squibs is that phenomena that one might initially be tempted to dismiss as paralinguistic or even entirely nonlinguistic can turn out on closer scrutiny to interact directly with the core operations of syntax (Merge, selection, projection, Case assignment, etc.).