Kučerová (2018) puts forward a novel theory of the morphology and interpretation of nominal gender in Italian. Here, we take issue with this theory from both empirical and theoretical standpoints. We first show that several generalizations presented as empirical support for it are incorrect. We then point out three fundamental theoretical challenges. First, the proposed three-way classification of nouns does not represent the full range of facts, because it does not take into account plural morphology or the interdependencies of class and gender features. Second, the account of gender mismatch in terms of “semicon-servativity” fails to capture the Italian data, once the full paradigm is considered. Finally, the use of phase theory to model contextual valuation of gender faces an insurmountable lookahead problem.

Noun phrases, such as this photo , can often appear both with modifiers, such as the adjective old , and with arguments, typically PPs such as of the queen . Most of the literature on the syntax of DPs has adopted the hypothesis that adjectives are base-generated higher than nominal arguments, just as adverbs are merged higher than arguments in the clause. This squib looks at the syntax of the Italian DP, focusing on the distribution of modifier PPs and argument PPs, and offers novel evidence that, contrary to the received view, nominal modifiers such as adjectives are in fact base-generated lower than nominal arguments.