University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Non-Nominative Subject Constructions in the Government and Binding Framework

Hermon, Gabriella

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Description

Title
Non-Nominative Subject Constructions in the Government and Binding Framework
Author(s)
Hermon, Gabriella
Issue Date
1981
Department of Study
Linguistics
Discipline
Linguistics
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Language, Linguistics
Language
eng
Abstract
  • This study is an investigation of the principles required to account for the behavior of non-nominative subjects in the Government and Binding framework, a version of the Extended Standard Theory. Non-nominative subjects are NPs which are not case marked with nominative case and which do not trigger subject verb agreement. These NPs, however, may share certain syntactic properties with nominative subjects. It is shown that in the Government and Binding framework the principles and theories which distinguish between subjects and non-subjects require an analysis in which the non-nominatives are subjects in certain components and non-subjects in others. In Imbabura Quechua, the language analyzed in greatest detail in this thesis, non-nominative desideratives are treated as subjects by the binding principles, the theory of control and the ECP. In other languages, such as Huanca Quechua, non-nominatives are treated as subjects only by the ECP, but not by the binding principles or by the theory of control.
  • An analysis is suggested to account for this variability. It is proposed that these nominals be generated as D-structure objects and reanalyzed (by Move-(alpha)) as subjects on the right-hand side of the grammar. This analysis is generalized to other languages, such as Kannada, Modern Hebrew and Italian. A variety of changes in the framework are proposed. The division of the right-hand side of the grammar into two components, a binding component and an LF component is motivated.
Graduation Semester
1981
Type of Resource
text
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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/66716

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