1 Notes on noun phrase structure in Tagalog

This article presents some observations on the syntax and semantics of the Tagalog phrase marking particles ang, ng, and sa. While there is some evidence for the widely held view that the phrase marking particles form a kind of paradigm in that they are at least in partial complementary distribution, they differ significantly in their distributional characteristics. Consequently, it will be argued that sa heads prepositional phrases, while ang and ng head higher-level phrases (i.e. phrases where PPs occur a complements or adjuncts). These phrases may be considered DPs, although they differ in a number of regards from DPs in European languages. Because of these differences, their status as determiners may be open to questions, but there can be little doubt that ang and ng provide examples par excellence for functional elements displaying (syntactic) head characteristics. Analyzing ang and ng as determiners raises the issue of how they relate to other elements which are usually considered determiners, in particular demonstratives. This problem is taken up in the second main part of the article. It is proposed that demonstratives in fact may occur in two different phrase-structural positions, i.e. they occur both as alternate heads instead o