Mixed categories in Irish

In this short paper, I look at the phenomenon of “mixed category” verbal nouns in Irish. Unlike previous accounts, I claim that nominal characteristics of these categories follow from two sources: In one group of verbal nouns, they exhibit nominal properties because they have nominal functional morphology (following Borsley and Kornfilt, 2000). In the other group, there is no nominal functional structure and the “nominality” of verbal nouns is epiphenomenal. Instead, I claim that the relevant “nominal” properties of this second group are simply the effect of an inherent-case-as-repair strategy used when a structural case position is unavailable due to a variety of causes, including idiosyncratic selectional effects.