Nominal structure in Slavic: DP, left branch extraction, and focus movement

The present study examines the syntactic phenomenon of left branch adjective extraction in Slavic languages by investigating two competing views concerning the structure of Slavic noun phrases: the view that Slavic languages without articles project a determiner phrase (DP) that provides a syntactic position for articles, and the view that such extraction is possible because these languages do not project DP. A series of pilot questionnaires were developed using three article-less Slavic languages (Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian, Russian, and Czech) to identify whether a pragmatic context related to focus movement could be responsible for motivating extraction. A "Split DP" theory of complex nominal structure is used to evaluate both the responses to the questionnaires and to suggest a structure that is suitable for accommodating the phenomenon of left branch extraction (LBE) in Slavic. In contrast to the claims made by the no-DP view for Slavic, the results from the questionnaires do not support uniform acceptance of sentences with LBE'd adjectives under conditions of focus movement. The attempt to discover the pragmatic contexts for extraction, however, does offer insights into some of the weaknesses in the current, prevailing no-DP view of LBE while also suggesting the usefulness of a complex DP structure for analyzing this phenomenon in Slavic as well as a possible role for emotivity as part of the context for LBE.