Examining its subject from a generative perspective, this highly detailed text deals with the syntax of nominal expressions. It focuses on empirical data taken from the Spanish language, though the author goes further to draw conclusions of wider theoretical interest from material culled from other languages too.

The book considers crucial phenomena in the nominal domain, such as extraction out of nominal phrases and ellipsis in these phrases, as well as their modification. In doing so it provides the reader with a unified explanation of a number of phenomena that have not previously been analyzed under a single basic account. In particular, Ticio explores how economy notions interact with a number of functional categories, with the length and type of movements allowed, and with the existence of three internal domains within nominal expressions. She uses these observations to inform her analysis of the structure of arguments and adjuncts in nominal expressions, and of the potential these elements have for extraction. To test the empirical adequacy of her analysis, she employs phenomena such as the properties of attributive adjectives, partial cliticization and nominal elision in Spanish nominal phrases.

Aimed at specialized linguists as well as those with a particular interest in Spanish and Romance languages, the research laid out in this book contributes to the general discussion on linguistic theory by providing additional material relevant to key ongoing debates in the theory of grammar, such as the need to have a distinction between adjuncts and specifiers, and the lack of head movement (N movement).