Instructor: Adriana Todea

atodea@yahoo.com
Office hours: Friday 2-3 p.m., Alpha Centre room

Introduction to Generative Grammar

Course 8: Case theory
WEEK 11
Outline1
abstract (with no phonological form)
Cases can be
or
overt (phonologically realized)
Examples: the genitive case marked by s is an overt case in English.
the nominative and the accusative case are abstract cases in
English (the case inflection in noun declension is inflection )
Pronominal forms still mark the distinction between Nom, Acc and Gen:
he, him, his, whereas nouns are abstract-case marked for Nom the child,
and for Acc the child, and overtly marked for Gen the childs.
The principle that forces case to be assigned is the Case Filter.
Case Filter: Every phonetically realized NP must be assigned case.
Empty categories, traces (nominals that are not phonetically realized as a
result of movement or Equi-NP-deletion) are not subject to the Case
Filter.
Case assignment makes phonetically realized nominals syntactically
visible, allowing speakers to identify grammatical relations such as
subject, direct object, indirect object, adjunct or thematic roles, such as
possessor, instrumental, theme/patient, temporal, etc.
Cases can be

structural
or
inherent

Structural case: assigned by case assigners under government, to

specific positions in the structure (therefore the case is called structural),
which are also argument positions (A-positions).
You find in this outline the content of the slides that I project during the course,
which contain the main topics and also structures and diagrams which may be difficult
and time consuming for you to copy during my lecture. They are made available to you
before class to save time and to make note-taking easier, but not unnecessary!
The outline as such (without your notes covering the detailed explanations that I give
during the course) cannot constitute a sufficient source of information when preparing
for the exam. If you miss the class, it is strongly recommended that this outline be used
as a guide to the bibliography indicated at the end of this document.
1

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The lexical case assigners in English are transitive verbs ( V assigns the
Acc case to its sister) and prepositions (P assigns the Acc case to its
sister). The functional case assigner in English is Inflection (the
agreement feature of I).
We believe [IP1 himAcc to be a werewolf.]
We believe [CPthat [IP2 heNom is a werewolf.]
IP1 is an infinitival clause, a non-finite clause: [-Agr; + Tense]
IP2 is a finite clause: [+Agr, +Tense]
The subject of IP2, the finite clause, is in the Nominative case, whereas
the subject of IP1, the non-finite clause, is in the Accusative case.
Nominative case assignment must be related to the presence of the
agreement feature of the Inflection.
Therefore, we conclude that a finite Inflection assigns the Nominative
case to its argument, whereas a non-finite Inflection fails to do that.
John will give the book to Mary next week.

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Structural case is assigned

--only to arguments;
--to specific positions in the structure;
--at S-structure;
--under government;
--by case assigners (V,P,I).

The subject argument moves from spec-VP to spec-IP so that it is

assigned structural Nominative by the finite inflection.
The direct object argument, sister of the verb, is assigned structural
accusative by the verb.
The indirect object argument, sister of preposition to, is assigned
structural accusative by the preposition.
Structural cases are assigned to specific positions in the structure. In
English these specific positions are:
sister of the verb: the verb assigns str.Acc to its sister;
sister of the preposition: the preposition assigns str.Acc to
its sister;
spec-IP: the finite inflection assigns str.Nom to its
specifier.

Exceptional Case Marking (ECM)

We believe [IP1 himAcc to be a werewolf.]
We believe [CPthat [IP2 heNom is a werewolf.]
The subject argument he of the finite clause IP2 is assigned str. Nom by
I is.
The subject argument him of the non-finite clause IP1 is assigned str.
Acc by transitive V believe.

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We were anxious

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?
for
?

[IPnon-finite Mary to leave.]

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[IPnon-finite PROabs to fail this exam] is unthinkable.

For [IPnon-finite us to fail this exam] is unthinkable.

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Inherent case: adjuncts and possessors

Structural case is assigned only to arguments, to specific positions in the
structure, by case assigners.
[NP Johns analysis of the problem]
Head noun analysis governs inside NP, but it is not a case assigner.

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Johns analysis of the problem

Acc
This analysis of Johns
Gen
Themeinherent Acc
Posessorinherent Gen

In English preposition of is a marker of

inherent case, not a case assigner, and,
therefore, it is not not a proper
preposition.

Inherent case:
--expression of the theta-role assigned in D-structure
by the governor (head of the phrase);
--assigned in D-structure.
Possessor inherent genitive;
Theme/ patient, stimulus inherent accusative;
Temporal inherent accusative
John will give Mary the book next week.

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Bibliography:
Vivian Cook & Mark Newson (1996) Chomskys Universal Grammar,
second edition, Blackwell, pp 222-230 (you can find it in the Generative
Grammar dossier at the library)

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