A conversation between Minimalism and LFG: The Welsh DP with special reference to possessors

Breaking away from the traditional format of a lecture-style presentation, this colloquium adopts a more dynamic, conversational approach. Simone and Richard (from our own department) will engage in some discussion about the formal grammar frameworks in which they work: the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995 et seq.) and Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) (Bresnan 2001).
To create a level ground between the two frameworks and facilitate comparison between them, both speakers will analyse as an example some empirical data illustrating a typical syntactic investigation, namely nominal structures with possessors in Welsh, as in (1) below:

(1) (*y) siop (*y) merch y cigydd
the shop the daughter the butcher
‘the butcher's daughter’s shop’

How will (their models formulated in) the two frameworks account for the fact that the possessee cannot be overtly marked for definiteness? Time permitting, they will also explore several related structures (e.g., adjective distribution, possessive pronominal clitics, complex numerals noun-possessor and noun-complement relations) to further compare the analytic approach and formal tools of the two frameworks.
The colloquium format will leave plenty of room for questions and interactive dialogue. This will be a great chance - and one we rarely have in our busy departmental life - to engage with each other's perspectives on the big questions of grammatical organisation and formal language modelling. We encourage everyone with thoughts on syntax, grammar and linguistic theory to join in this stimulating exchange.