On the Functional Superstructure of the Noun Phrase in Indo-European

Proto-Indo-European most probably did not possess a determiner system. Determiner systems are interpreted as an overt exponent of a functional category determiner phrase (DP). It is argued, nevertheless, that proto-Indo-European already possessed a DP, although it lacked an overt exponent. Evidence for this assumption comes from languages like Ancient Greek, which developed early on a determiner system that is best analyzed as an exponent of DP, and even from determinerless languages like Latin. Here, the elements that later would develop into determiners (in the Romance languages) show different linearization properties than adjectives do, indicating that they occupy another structural slot. As they are quite strictly left-adjacent to the noun, they already seem to occupy the D°-position (that is, the head of DP). Furthermore, an account of extraposition out of noun phrases is given using the Big-DP-hypothesis.