IndefP as a New Functional Category in Persian

The so-called indefiniteness morpheme or enclitic /i:/ in Persian has been substantially studied from morphological and semantic points of view, but rarely given full analysis in syntactic surveys. Mostly considered as an affix attached to the head noun in NP/DP, it is seldom considered as independent or significant in syntactic representations. In generative syntax, especially in the Minimalist Program, functional categories have been suggested as elements which regulate the grammatical relations among lexical categories. Formerly, the functional category Ezafe has been established above nominal heads in Persian NPs. The present study, introduces IndefP as a functional category in Persian for the first time, and seeks to give structures containing the /i:/ element the fullest analysis they have ever enjoyed. Evidence is provide as to depict a full minimalist projection for this category and analyze complex structures headed by this functional item. Indefinite Phrase is shown to be a head-last projection which selects NP/DPs as its complement and accepts various structures (CPs, PPs or APs) as its adjuncts. It is further shown that this analysis is not limited to nominal structures in A-positions and is also extendable to those appearing in A-bar positions as sentence adverbs attached to the (maximal or intermediate) projection of T.