<OT> New Posting: ROA-692

[roa at ruccs.rutgers.edu]

ROA 692-1004

Case for the OT Case Assignment

Evguenia Malaia <emalaya at purdue.edu>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=692


Abstract:
The paper investigates the phenomenon of Case assignment
in OT syntax and suggests a uniform input and mechanism
of syntactic analysis for Case assignment. We propose that
the input for OT analysis should be the verb with its theta
roles, and the arguments that these theta-roles can be assigned
to.

Predictions of Case assignment for languages with split
ergativity provided by Aissen (2000) are inconsistent, as
the researcher admits: the intransitive sentences are not
accounted for. On the other hand, Woolford (2000) has proposed
an alternative account, which makes allowance for both structural
and inherent cases, by using inherent Cases in the input.
This is a problematic approach, because Cases are syntactic
structures, and using them as input for syntactic analysis
is a palliative measure. We suggest that the verb, its theta-role
s, and arguments, should be taken as input.

Comments: 
Keywords: case, theta-roles
Areas: Syntax
Type: Manuscript

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=692