Howard Lasnik
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262062787
- eISBN:
- 9780262273152
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262062787.003.0003
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Theoretical Linguistics
Drawing on Jean-Roger Vergnaud’s argument that notions of Case and government are deeply embedded in the principles of Universal Grammar, this chapter explores the evolution of Case theory, which ...
More
Drawing on Jean-Roger Vergnaud’s argument that notions of Case and government are deeply embedded in the principles of Universal Grammar, this chapter explores the evolution of Case theory, which explains the distribution of phonetically realized subjects in infinitival clauses. It considers Vergnaud’s original formulation of a Case principle, which deals primarily with the distribution of phonetically realized noun phrase in the subject position of an infinitival clause, as well as Noam Chomsky’s formulation of the Case Filter. It also discusses how Case enters a derivation, the precise formulation of the Case Filter, and the level (or levels) of representation in which the Case Filter applies.Less
Drawing on Jean-Roger Vergnaud’s argument that notions of Case and government are deeply embedded in the principles of Universal Grammar, this chapter explores the evolution of Case theory, which explains the distribution of phonetically realized subjects in infinitival clauses. It considers Vergnaud’s original formulation of a Case principle, which deals primarily with the distribution of phonetically realized noun phrase in the subject position of an infinitival clause, as well as Noam Chomsky’s formulation of the Case Filter. It also discusses how Case enters a derivation, the precise formulation of the Case Filter, and the level (or levels) of representation in which the Case Filter applies.
Omer Preminger
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780262027403
- eISBN:
- 9780262323192
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262027403.003.0010
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Theoretical Linguistics
This chapter discusses the implications of the results of previous chapters for topics beyond agreement and case. The first section explores the question of whether phi-feature agreement, shown to ...
More
This chapter discusses the implications of the results of previous chapters for topics beyond agreement and case. The first section explores the question of whether phi-feature agreement, shown to inescapably adhere to an obligatory-operations logic, is an outlier in the landscape of syntactic operations. The author surveys several other empirical domains that suggest the contrary, finding the same obligatory-operations logic at work. The domains surveyed are: Object Shift, and its relation to specificity; the Definiteness Effect, and its relation to syntactic subjecthood; and the featural underpinnings of long-distance wh-movement. The second section addresses the question of syntactic uniformity. If it is correct that an obligatory-operations logic is indispensible, we might wonder about the prospects for a syntax that completely eschews derivational time-bombs (e.g. Chomsky's 2000, 2001 'uninterpretable features'), and makes use only of obligatory operations. The author surveys some of the central challenges that such a move would face, and suggest some possible directions for how these challenges might be met.Less
This chapter discusses the implications of the results of previous chapters for topics beyond agreement and case. The first section explores the question of whether phi-feature agreement, shown to inescapably adhere to an obligatory-operations logic, is an outlier in the landscape of syntactic operations. The author surveys several other empirical domains that suggest the contrary, finding the same obligatory-operations logic at work. The domains surveyed are: Object Shift, and its relation to specificity; the Definiteness Effect, and its relation to syntactic subjecthood; and the featural underpinnings of long-distance wh-movement. The second section addresses the question of syntactic uniformity. If it is correct that an obligatory-operations logic is indispensible, we might wonder about the prospects for a syntax that completely eschews derivational time-bombs (e.g. Chomsky's 2000, 2001 'uninterpretable features'), and makes use only of obligatory operations. The author surveys some of the central challenges that such a move would face, and suggest some possible directions for how these challenges might be met.
