Agree and Minimality in the DP:

This paper discusses a previously unnoticed binominal construction from Italian, termed the Cazzo-of-N construction (CoN), consisting of an expressive noun (N1), prepositional di ‘of’, and a noun contributing the descriptive content (N2). Unexpectedly, φ-agreement of the determiner heading the complex DP obligatorily goes with the structurally lower N2 in apparent violation of Minimality, presenting a challenge for versions of minimalist grammar (Chomsky 1995, 2000) where φ-feature co-variation is uniformly the result of Agree. This paper identifies core features of the construction on which it bases two alternative accounts to resolve the Minimalitydisobeying agreement pattern, the first arguing for incorporation of the N1 due to deficiency, the second for a functional layer hiding the N1