Grammatical Case Assignment in Finnish

by Nelson,Diane C.

• ISBN13: 9780815331803
• ISBN10: 0815331800
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-09-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This study presents an analysis of morphological case in Finnish within the Principles and Parameters framework. Finnish has a rich system of inflection for both case and agreement, making it an important language for testing hypotheses about the relationships between morphological case and abstract Case, and Case/case and agreement. The focus of the study is a set of syntactic environments where internal DP arguments appear in nominative case, but alternate with accusative personal pronouns. Because these environments lack an external argument coindexed with agreement, the data is particularly relevant to predictions made by Burzio's Generalization. By testing the generalization against a range of sentence types, Finnish is shown to contain an ergative split within an accusative main system. The assignment of the objective cases, accusative and partitive, is linked with the licensing of aspectual roles at D-structure, and finite Tense posited as a bi-unique Case assigner. The case split then arises as the result of two case features being assigned simultaneous

Table of Contents

Preface	ix	(2)
List of Abbreviations	xi
1. Introduction	3	(36)
1.1 A brief overview of Finnish grammar and morphology	3	(12)
1.2 Functional categories and the structure of the Finnish IP	15	(24)
2. Grammatical Case Assignment in Finnish	39	(36)
2.1 Introduction	39	(1)
2.2 Subject and object case	40	(22)
2.3 Object case assignment and agreement in Finnish: Previous accounts	62	(8)
2.4 Conclusion	70	(5)
3. Patterns of Case Assignment	75	(36)
3.1 Introduction	75	(2)
3.2 Case and external arguments	77	(12)
3.3 Agreement morphology and case	89	(4)
3.4 Weak and strong AGR	93	(2)
3.5 The argument structure of imperatives	95	(3)
3.6 Split-S ergativity	98	(7)
3.7 Conclusion	105	(6)
4. Mechanisms of Case Assignment	111	(74)
4.1 Introduction	111	(1)
4.2 Finite clause structure	112	(6)
4.3 Mechanisms of case assignment	118	(4)
4.4 Nominative case assignment	122	(8)
4.5 Objective case assignment	130	(19)
4.6 Case assignment in transitive sentences	149	(3)
4.7 Double case marking: An account for Split-S ergativity	152	(22)
4.8 Case assignment and measure phrases	174	(4)
4.9 Conclusion	178	(7)
5. The Morphosyntax of Possessive Affixes	185	(44)
5.1 Introduction	185	(1)
5.2 The distribution of Pxes	186	(6)
5.3 Px morphology and phonology	192	(8)
5.4 Previous analyses of Finnish Pxes	200	(3)
5.5 The syntax of Pxes	203	(3)
5.6 Conclusion	226	(3)
6. Complex Predicates and Non-finite Clauses	229	(26)
6.1 Introduction	229	(1)
6.2 Case assignment and complex predicates	229	(12)
6.3 Gerundive clauses	241	(5)
6.4 Adverbial adjunct clauses	246	(4)
6.5 Conclusion	250	(5)
Bibliography	255	(8)
Index	263