ИСТИНА

Do languages that lack articles have a DP projection? This question has been a topic of a continuing debate in syntax. Focusing on Slavic languages, Progovac (1998), Rutkowski (2002), and others argued in favor of the DP projection, while Bošković (2005, 2008, 2009) argued against it. Pereltsvaig (2006, 2007) proposed that while some nominals in articleless languages are DPs, others are Small Nominals (SNs). In this paper, we provide novel evidence for the latter position. Unlike previous works that were based on the behavior of elements internal to nominals (e.g. pronouns) or correlations with nominal-external phenomena (Left-Branch Extraction, superiority effects in multiple wh-fronting, etc.), our analysis is based on patterns involving case marking. Specifically, we show that in both Russian and Tatar, DPs must receive structural case while SNs are not subject to the same case filter. Depending on the morphosyntactic peculiarities of the language, SNs either will appear in a morphological form distinct from the structural case, or may remain caseless.