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The Nominative Puzzle and the Low Nominative Hypothesis

Sigurðsson, Halldor Armann LU (2006) In Linguistic Inquiry 37(2). p.289-308
Abstract
Under the view of nominative Case taken by Chomsky (2000, 2001), one would expect nominative to be the marked or complex Case, being merged after accusative. In fact, however, it is the other way around, nominative preconditioning accusative and also being the Case of simple

structures (unaccusative, etc.). The article argues that this Nominative Puzzle is not real, the nominative argument in fact being the first argument merged, raised across the accusative later in the derivation for independent reasons. This approach not only accounts for the dependency

correlation between accusative and nominative (Burzio’s

Generalization), but also offers a derivational account of Condition A correlations (anaphors being... (More)
Under the view of nominative Case taken by Chomsky (2000, 2001), one would expect nominative to be the marked or complex Case, being merged after accusative. In fact, however, it is the other way around, nominative preconditioning accusative and also being the Case of simple

structures (unaccusative, etc.). The article argues that this Nominative Puzzle is not real, the nominative argument in fact being the first argument merged, raised across the accusative later in the derivation for independent reasons. This approach not only accounts for the dependency

correlation between accusative and nominative (Burzio’s

Generalization), but also offers a derivational account of Condition A correlations (anaphors being merged higher than their ‘‘antecedents’’). Importantly, it also makes it possible to explain Icelandic quirky constructions

in terms of a general matching theory. In addition, the article develops a novel approach to Move as applying for the purpose of successful feature matching. (Less)
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author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
quirky Case, Move, Condition A, structural Case, Burzio’s Generalization, intervention
in
Linguistic Inquiry
volume
37
issue
2
pages
289 - 308
publisher
MIT Press
external identifiers
  • wos:000237620300006
  • scopus:33646680807
ISSN
1530-9150
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Swedish (015011001)
id
08924ac7-e532-44e4-952b-c4c2ac325599 (old id 539375)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 12:21:55
date last changed
2022-04-21 06:27:00
@article{08924ac7-e532-44e4-952b-c4c2ac325599,
  abstract     = {{Under the view of nominative Case taken by Chomsky (2000, 2001), one would expect nominative to be the marked or complex Case, being merged after accusative. In fact, however, it is the other way around, nominative preconditioning accusative and also being the Case of simple<br/><br>
structures (unaccusative, etc.). The article argues that this Nominative Puzzle is not real, the nominative argument in fact being the first argument merged, raised across the accusative later in the derivation for independent reasons. This approach not only accounts for the dependency<br/><br>
correlation between accusative and nominative (Burzio’s<br/><br>
Generalization), but also offers a derivational account of Condition A correlations (anaphors being merged higher than their ‘‘antecedents’’). Importantly, it also makes it possible to explain Icelandic quirky constructions<br/><br>
in terms of a general matching theory. In addition, the article develops a novel approach to Move as applying for the purpose of successful feature matching.}},
  author       = {{Sigurðsson, Halldor Armann}},
  issn         = {{1530-9150}},
  keywords     = {{quirky Case; Move; Condition A; structural Case; Burzio’s Generalization; intervention}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{289--308}},
  publisher    = {{MIT Press}},
  series       = {{Linguistic Inquiry}},
  title        = {{The Nominative Puzzle and the Low Nominative Hypothesis}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/2893407/625984.pdf}},
  volume       = {{37}},
  year         = {{2006}},
}