Argument Encoding III: The Minimalist Program - Universität Leipzig

119 Pages·2013·0.78 MB·German

by  Gereon Müller

Argument Encoding
III: The Minimalist Program
Gereon Mu(cid:127)ller
Institutfu(cid:127)rLinguistik
Universita(cid:127)t Leipzig
WiSe 2006/2007
www.uni-leipzig.de/(cid:24)muellerg
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Overview
Three minimalist analyses:
1 Bobaljik (1993): 1 = erg, nom, 2 = acc, abs
2 Murasugi (1992): 1 = nom,abs, 2 = acc,erg
3 Bittner & Hale (1996): 1 = erg, 2 = acc, 3 = nom,abs
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Bobaljik’s(1993)Analysis
Ergativity in Yup0ik
0
(1) Yupik (canonical ergative pattern):
a. Angute-m qusngiq ner-aa
man-erg reindeer-abs eat-+trans.3s/3s
‘The man is eating the reindeer.’
0
b. Qusngiq ner-uq
reindeer-abs eta-{trans.3s
‘The reindeer is eating.’
Focus of Bobaljik (1993):
The threebasic argument encoding patterns(ergative, accusative, active); not:
argument-typebased,clause-type based, aspect/tense basedsplits.
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Bobaljik’s(1993)Analysis
Bobaljik (1993): Basic Assumptions
The analysis follows Levin & Massam (1985), and particularly Chomsky
(1993):
The cases of primary arguments are determined by two di(cid:11)erent syntactic
heads K , K (e.g.: K = Agr , K = Agr ). The two language types are
1 2 1 s 2 o
identical with respect to V contexts; in V contexts, there are di(cid:11)erences.
t i
Only K is \activated" in ergative languages, and only K is \activated" in
2 1
accusative languages.
1 erg, nom ! K1
2 abs, acc ! K2
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Bobaljik’s(1993)Analysis
Bobaljik (1993): Basic Assumptions
The analysis follows Levin & Massam (1985), and particularly Chomsky
(1993):
The cases of primary arguments are determined by two di(cid:11)erent syntactic
heads K , K (e.g.: K = Agr , K = Agr ). The two language types are
1 2 1 s 2 o
identical with respect to V contexts; in V contexts, there are di(cid:11)erences.
t i
Only K is \activated" in ergative languages, and only K is \activated" in
2 1
accusative languages.
1 erg, nom ! K1
2 abs, acc ! K2
The morphological marking problem (Chomsky (1993)):
\The \active" element typically assigns a less-marked Case to its Spec."
(Chomsky (1993))
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Bobaljik’s(1993)Analysis
The Obligatory Case Parameter
(2) Obligatory Case:
Case X is obligatorily assigned/checked.
(3) Obligatory Case Parameter (OCP):
a. In nominative/accusative languages, case X is nominative (=
erg).
b. In ergative/absolutive languages, case X is absolutive (=
acc).
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Bobaljik’s(1993)Analysis
The Obligatory Case Parameter
(2) Obligatory Case:
Case X is obligatorily assigned/checked.
(3) Obligatory Case Parameter (OCP):
a. In nominative/accusative languages, case X is nominative (=
erg).
b. In ergative/absolutive languages, case X is absolutive (=
acc).
\Presumably, the observed morphological tendency towards null
morphology for these Cases is a re(cid:13)ection of this obligatory status."
(Bobaljik (1993, 51))
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Bobaljik’s(1993)Analysis
Clause Structure
(4) Clause Structure (assumed by Bobaljik (1993)):
CP
0
Spec C
C Agr P
1
0
Spec Agr
1
Agr TP
1
Spec T0
T Agr P
2
Spec Agr0
2
Agr VP
2
0
NPext V
Agr-1 = nom, erg; \subject" Agreement V NPint
Agr-2 = acc, abs; \object" Agreement
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Bobaljik’s(1993)Analysis
Transitive Clauses: Ergative and Accusative Patterns
(5) NP -V and NP -V move to case positions in transitive causes:
ext t int t
CP
0
Spec C
C Agr P
1
0
NPext Agr1
Agr TP
1
0
Spec T
T Agr P
2
0
NPint Agr2
Agr VP
2
0
t V
NPext
V t
NPint
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Bobaljik’s(1993)Analysis
Intransitive Clauses: Accusative Patterns
(6) NP -V (or NP -V ) moves to SpecAgr in transitive causes:
ext i int i 1
CP
0
Spec C
C Agr P
1
0
NPext Agr1
Agr TP
1
0
Spec T
T VP
t V
NPext
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