LINGUIST List 13.2434

Wed Sep 25 2002

Diss: Syntax: Sudharsan "A minimalist account..."

Editor for this issue: Karolina Owczarzak <karolinalinguistlist.org>

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1. asudharsan, Syntax: Sudharsan "A minimalist account of null subjects..."

New Dissertation Abstract

Institution: University of Hyderabad
Program: Centre for Applied Linguistics and Translation Studies
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 1998

Author: Anuradha Sudharsan 

Dissertation Title: 
A minimalist account of null subjects in Kannada

Linguistic Field: Syntax

Dissertation Director 1: Probol Dasgupta
Dissertation Director 2: Sen Gupta


Dissertation Abstract: 

This study proposes to explain the NS phenomenon in Kannada in terms
of certain general principles within the framework of the minimalist
approach outlined in Chomsky (1995). Besides, an attempt is made to
reconcile the small pro and the big PRO within a unified theory of
case developed here since these empty subjects share many
characteristics. Interestingly, Kannada is shown to have a full
paradigm of PRO, including an expletive PRO, to match with that of pro
occurring in nominative positions.

An examination of the Kannada clause structure has shown that it is
tense that triggers the appearance of pro and that Agr has a very
limited syntactic role to play in licensing or identifying the
referential content of pro. In fact Agr need not be present to license
pro. However, when Agr is present, person feature is obligatory to
license pro. Agr occurs only in finite declarative,
non-negative/non-modal clauses, consistently alternating and sharing a
modalic status with Neg/Modal. Furthermore, Agr, like Neg/modal, is
shown to be a cluster of features on Infl when Infl is [+finite], that
is, when it is [+Tense]. Hence there is no need to assume an AgrP for
Kannada.

One of the main proposals of this study lies in what I call the
Principle of Case Saturation which refers to a situation wherein case
gets 'saturated' within the case assignor, which means that case is
not assigned to an NP, thus rendering the NP null. Nonetheless, case
is still inherent within the case assignor. Saturation of case,
however, need not be reflected in any kind of morphology on the case
assignor. It is assumed that this Principle is available in all NSLs
and NOLs and that it is this option which divides languages into NSL
and non-NSL types. An advantage of this principle is that it takes
care of several other phenomena such as hyper-raising constructions,
noun-incorporation etc which are claimed to co-occur with NSs. It is
argued that case saturation is the motivating force in the
hyper-raising construction which otherwise would be a violation of RMC
or the Chain Condition. The Case Saturation scenario, however, seems
to conflict with the Null Case Hypothesis proposed in
Chomsky(1995). In the Null Case Hypothesis, PRO of control infinitives
gets null case whereas in the present account pro gets no case
although it occurs in a potentially case-marked position. One possible
solution to this is to assume that both pro and PRO are
caseless. This, in fact, simplifies the theory by eliminating
inconsistencies such as that between control infinitives and raising
infinitives and also the adhoc solution of assigning null case to
PRO. Besides, a null contentless case seems to be out of place in a
minimalist theory which claims to take morphology seriously.

The uncased pro and PRO, however, fail to meet the requirement of the
Visibility Condition that NPs be case-marked in order to be
theta-marked. To handle this problem, a modification of the
Visibility Condition is proposed. The redefined Visibility means
'visibility' for checking, not for theta-marking. In accordance
with this reformulated condition, all NPs, theta-marked, or
case-marked or both will raise for checking. Disassociation of the
Visibility Condition from case has certain advantages. It takes care
of both thematic and non-thematic NPs, null or otherwise. By and
large, the different syntactic phenomena considered here are, in one
way or another, rooted in case factors. And they all seem to hold
together in a simplified theory of case developed in this study.