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Oltean, Case in generative grammar (GB perspective)

Case the particular phonetic form an NP bears in order to express ist grammatical or thematic function
in a sentence

Morphological case and abstract case

1. Fiona hit him/*he.

2. Paul moved towards her/*she.
3. He/*him worked till late last night.
4. Fionas coat was pink.
5. Her coat was pink.
6. Fiona gave a kiss to Paul.

In English the overt morphological realization of case in NPs is restricted to the Genitive case.
Nominative, Accusative and Dative are not overtly realized, even though they were overtly marked in
earlier stages of the language. The pronoun still retains the overt distinction between Nominative and
Accusaticve/Dative. Other languages, like Romanian, have a richer case system, with cases distinctly
marked on nouns:

7. I-a dat mncare pisicii vecinului.

Claim: English does not have an overt case system, but it has abstract case; the latter is part of universal
grammar, but its morphological realization varies from one language to another. It is not learned; what is
learned is the mapping between abstract case and its morphological realization.

Claim: Every NP in a sentence must have case in order for the sentence to be well formed. The absence
of case on any NP renders the sentence ungrammatical case filter.

8. For her to go there seems unthinkable. for assigns case to her

9. *Her to go there seems unthinkable. there is no case assigner

Nominative and accusative

Accusative is assigned under government by a verb or, respectively, a preposition (see 1, 2). Verbs and
prepositions case mark the NPs they govern. The conditions of case assignment are structural.

The Nom. is assigned under government by the inflection; no multiple government is allowed, e.g., by the
verb a verb cannot assign case to an NP outside the VP, such as the subject:

10. *Him gave a kiss.

Nouns and adjectives do not assign Acc. case.

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Oltean, Case in generative grammar (GB perspective)

11. *Fionas convincing Paul.

12. *Fionas envious her.

of insertion is needed;

Nominative generativists have argued, on the basis of amended definitions of government (government
in terms of m-command), that INFL governs the subject NP and assigns Nominative case; V governs the
object NP and can assign Accusative case.

13. Fiona hits him. - represent

A maximal projection is a barrier to government from the outside.

14. A refuzat propunerea mpotriva insistenelor. - represent

Exceptional case marking (ECM)

15. Fiona believes [IP him to be a werewolf].

16. Fiona believes [CP/IP he is a werewolf]. (what is it CP or IP?)

him and he are subjects of the clause be/is a werewolf; but while he is assigned case by is
(INFL), him is assigned case by believe, which governs across the maximal INFL projection
exceptional case marking

Nominative case assignment can be reduced to the Spec head agreement relation:

XP/AgrP

NP X/Agr
Fiona

X/ Agr
-s
Structural vs. inherent case

Chomsky distinguishes between structural case (depends solely on government expresses the fact that
the NP uniquely realizes the -role) and inherent case (depends on theta role and government expresses
the fact that the NP has a -role, but does not uniquely correspond to it; e.g., it can be syntactically governed
by a preposition, but is assigned a -role by V, N or A):
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Oltean, Case in generative grammar (GB perspective)

17. Fionas envy of her her is theme of envy

18. The perpetration of evil ibid.
19. Paul is looking at Fiona.
20. Fiona will give a kiss to Peter.

(There are differences among languages: what is inherent case in English can be structural in Romanian
cf. the Romanian versions of 19, 20)

Nouns assign Genitive inherently, of being the overt reflex of an inherent Genitive case the
complement of an NP or AP; the preposition assigns Acc. case. Mismatch between the abstract Genitive
assigned inherently by the N and its overt realization, i.e., Acc. assigned by the preposition. It thus turns
out that inherent case is sensitive to thematic relations, while structural case is merely subject to structural
requirements a structural case assigner governs the NP it case marks irrespective of its -role.

Synthetic genitive can be the subject of an NP:

21. Fionas criticism of Paul

Case revisited Minimalism

The GB explanation is that case is assigned by government. The case filter provides a framework for this;
if there is no case assigner, the sentence is ungrammatical. While the Acc. case marking is straightforward,
the Nom case marking may be problematic.

22. Fiona is certain to win the race.

23. It is certain that Fiona will win the race.

In 22 and 23 Fiona is understood as the subject of win the race, as suggested by the underlying structure
(below), from which (22) is thought to be derived:

24. __is certain [Fiona to win the race]

In 24 Fiona cannot be assigned case; it raises to the higher subject position to get case. the NP Fiona
has some problem and it moves to solve the problem. The driving force is case requirement. This
requirement is not satisfied immediately upon the introduction of the NP into the structure, but sometimes
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Oltean, Case in generative grammar (GB perspective)

needs to wait until the next cycle, or many cycles until the last cycle, which is the ultimate landing site that
licenses the nominative case.

25. Fiona seems to be likely to win the race. give the underlying form
26. Fiona is believed to seem to be likely to win the race. give the underlying form

Hypothesis of minimalism: the driving force of movement is satisfied immediately; the problem does not
rest with Fiona, but rather with the category (lexical or functional) that licences case, i.e., the Inflection of
the higher clause. Inflection has a feature which must be checked against the NP. As soon as Infl. is
introduced into the structure, it will attract the NP that will check its feature. the driving force is the
target, not the moving item. The case of the NP gets checked after the movement; this is an effect of the
satisfaction of the requirement of the attractor: Greed

27. [IP FionaNOM was + Infl.NOM certain [IP Fiona to win the race]] moving to Spec IP, the case feature
of N is paired with the case feature of Infl.