Stephen van Vlack
Sookmyung Women`s University
Graduate School of English
Introduction to Linguistics
Fall 2003
Answers for Cook and Newson, `Chapter 6b`, pp. 215-233.
1. Draw trees that show both D and S-level for the following utterances.
Welsh
Darllenodd Sion y llyfr.
read-3sg John the book
German
Udo lief nach Hause
Udo ran to home
We already had the trees in class and it is hard to format the trees on the site, so I will just give a brief structural description of the two trees for these languages.
Welsh trees look similar to English trees especially at the D-structure level. The verb winds up moving in to the initial position as a result of fronting. In German the situation is quite different. The verbs starts in the final position and moves forward into C position. The NP/DP then has to move forward as well and winds up in the Spec CP position. If this is true how is it Case marked? The answer lies below in the difference between inherent and structural Case.
The basic idea here is that the same principles that we have been using to discuss English also work for other languages. In fact they must. That`s the whole point.
2. What is the difference between morphological Case and abstract Case?
Some languages, Korean among them mark Case overtly. That is, Case is somehow marked on the noun. Latin or Russian are good examples of languages that have well developed systems of morphological Case marking. Nouns have different endings based on their Case. We can therefore see the Case on the noun or pronoun, whatever. Korean and Turkish, for example do this a bit differently, more simply maybe, with one or two markers (allowing for phonological differences) which are attached to the right of the noun/pronoun to mark each Case overtly.
Look at the examples below of noun declension in Turkish and German respectively
Nominative siz- (you) Nominative der Mann (man)
Accusative siz-i Accusative den Mann
Genitive siz-in Genitive des Mannes
Dative siz-e Dative dem Mann
Locative siz-de
Ablative siz-den
In both languages above, although Case is marked differently it is still marked overtly. Somehow the morphology marks the Case for us. Abstract Case is Case that is not marked overtly. The idea is that Case is always there, whether it is marked in the morphology or not. In English and many other languages Case is only marked on pronouns, but that does not mean that is only there on pronouns. Case is on all nouns, even when not marked overtly. This is called abstract Case and all languages have it. Korean can overtly show Case or can simply not show it. Morphological Case in Korean is an option. In many languages this is not so. Some languages, particularly those with relatively free word order like Russian or Turkish have to show Case overtly.
3. Which categories are Case assigners and which Cases do they assign to what?
Case assigners are the elements in the sentence that can give Case. They are restricted to lexical categories. To be more detailed, verbs and prepositions assign Case to their complements as in the following examples.
A. The armadillo poked the porcupine with it`s sharp claw.
B. The armadillo ran to the store.
C. The armadillo gave a swift poke to the porcupine
In A the verb `poked` assigns accusative Case to its complement `the porcupine`. In sentence B the preposition `to` assigns accusative Case to `the store`. In C, the verb marks the NP a swift poke as accusative while the preposition marks the NP `the porcupine` with the Indirect object/Dative Case.
How subjects get their Case is a whole different story. Subjects are normally marked with nominative Case. We find later that this is given by the category AGRP to its specifier.
4. What are the differences between structural and inherent Case?
Inherent Case is when certain elements in the language always demand or call for the same Case no matter what the actual structure might be. These elements are usually verbs or prepositions. In German, for example certain prepositions are dative prepositions. These prepositions always mark their complements with the dative Case no matter what the structure. Such prepositions are said to have inherent Case. The Case they give must be marked in the lexicon. Look at the German examples below.
A. Der Mann steigt auf das Dach.
The-nom man climb-pst on the-acc roof
B. Er bleib stehen oben auf dem Dach .
he-nom remain-pst standing above on the-dat roof
As you can see the preopsition auf in German calls for two different Cases even though the structure of the two sentences is essentially the same. We must therefore posit that there are two versions (at least) of auf in German and that each one has a different inherent Case. Inherent Case must also be assigned at the level of D-structure.
Structural Case is much more common. It basically says that Case is determined solely by the structure and not by something that encoded in the lexemes. It is assigned at the level of S-structure. English and Korean are both examples of languages where there is only structural and no inherent Case. This might be confusing if we confuse roles with Case. Certain pre/postpositions in English/Korean give certain roles, but marking occurs separately from Case marking. Please do not confuse them. What happens in German is quite different that what we fins with prepositions in English or postpositions in Korean.
5. How can the Case Filter help account for movement like passive constructions and NP raising?
The Case Filter says that every overt NP must be marked for Case. This simple statement has far-reaching effects in the structure of language and particularly on movement. If we look at simple sentences in English, we see that the movement of the NP from Spec VP position to Spec AGRP position is because of Case marking. We know that the verb marks its complement (on the right) for Accusative Case. It can be assumed that each Case marker can only assign Case in one direction. The Np in the Spec VP position is in danger, then, of not being marked. It has to move forward in order to be marked for nominative Case.
In the Case of passive sentences, it has been claimed that the passive morphology absorbs/eats (whatever) the accusative Case. If this is true, then it explains why the NP complement has to move forward into the subject position. It moves there so it can be marked for Case. This is why NPs which originated in the VP Complement position (an accusative position) end up marked as nominative as in the example below.
He was beaten to a pulp. (0 beat him to a pulp)
6. What are some of the different parameters that relate specifically to Case theory?
There are several different parameters that relate specifically to Case marking. One of the most basic ones is a parameter that relates to the directionality of Case assignment. This is not much different than the parameter we saw earlier on headedness and the two might actually be part of the same parameter. This direction parameter states in which direction that Case marking can occur.
Another parameter is related to remoteness or adjacency. In English, for example, Case markers must be directly adjacent to the NP they are marking. This is not true for all languages. French does not require adjacency.
The last parameter has to do with ECM (Exceptional Case Marking). It relates to how some languages allow Case marking across clausal boundaries as in the sentence
John wanted [me to go].
English allows the verb to Case mark the specifier of the TP in the next clause. Not all languages allow this.