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This paper aims to account for what at first appears to be a unique constraint in the formation of A-not-A questions. Most previous analyses employ the pragmatic notion of focus. This paper argues in favor of a presuppositional account, which has wide empirical coverage and is independently motivated and more theoretically coherent than the notion of focus. The first section of the paper introduces the question types in Chinese and two constraints on the formation of A-not-A questions. In section 2, previous analyses are critically surveyed. Section 3 elucidates the problems with the notion of focus both in general and in these specific analyses. Section 4 puts forward a presuppositional account. In section 5, independent motivations for the proposal are given. Section 6 provides a summary of the paper. (Contains 23 references.) (NAV)

Analysis of a form of Burushaski, spoken in northern Pakistan, uses Relational Grammar (RG), targeting grammatical relations at different strata in a clause, to account for a wide range of verb agreement and case marking phenomena. It is found that the RG notions of unaccusative and unergative are sufficient to characterize the two major groupings of intransitive verbs. The nominals that can trigger object agreement on the verb are accounted for by various revaluation constructions. The grammar sanctions inversion, multi-predicate causative constructions, and impersonal constructions with a silent dummy nominal, thus making a similar case for subject agreement. Burushaski particularly lends support for RG claims about antipassive constructions. The RG notion of ascension is sufficient to account for possessor object agreement with verbs that govern this construction. Analyzing clauses with auxiliaries as multi-predicate construction helps account for absence or presence of object agreement in some situations. Causatives and inversion are also seen as multi-predicate constructions. Case marking of certain nominals is often sensitive to grammatical relations within a clause; if a nominal bears a certain relation in a clause, it will receive appropriate marking in spite of other grammatical relations. The rule for ergative case marking is similar. Contains 66 references. (MSE)

The aim of this paper is to describe verbal complementation in Malagasy and to consider how the Malagasy data reflect the "binding hierarchy" proposed by Givon (1980). It is shown that the Malagasy data provide support for the hierarchy and that the occurrence of the complementizer "fa" can be accounted for in terms of the strength of binding the main-clause verb. (Author/JL)

A study of intrasentential code-switching in 21 Finnish-English bilinguals focuses on the characteristics of two types of switches: those that are fluent and those that reflect repair phenomena. Data are drawn from naturally occurring conversations. Analysis highlights patterns in the use of Finnish case morphology in 550 instances of switched nouns. It was found that the majority of English nouns within Finnish matrix sentences were in accordance with Finnish case morphology, reflecting the government constraint stipulated as a principle of universal grammar, and that most of those were cases of fluent code-switching. Of those nouns that were missing Finnish case morphology, most were accompanied by repair phenomena. Implications for the relationship between repair and syntax are discussed. (MSE)

This paper focuses on the long-standing problem in Bantu syntax of why some objects lose the ability to be realized as object markers (OMs) in the passive. The standard answer to this question since the work of Gary and Keenan (1977) is that the passive and object marker require the same property (e.g., a grammatical relation or a particular case) and if this property is usurped by the passive, it will not be available for an OM. This paper suggests an alternative approach, which maintains that OMs are blocked in the passive, not because the passive and object marker compete for the same scarce resource, but rather because the addition of the passive morpheme adds a structural level that blocks the access of the OMs to case. This modification makes it possible to account for the fact that several standard OMs can absorb case in an active construction, while access to this property is blocked for all standard OMs in a passive construction. This modification has the added benefit of allowing the theory to account for the odd behavior of SiSwati in a simple way and to capture the parallelism between the behavior of Runyambo and SiSwati. (MDM)

This paper examines the distribution of third person pronominal clitics in Catalan causative constructions (CC), suggesting that an analysis of CC and cliticization crucially involving head-movement (verb incorporation and determiner incorporation) can explain the phenomena. Such an analysis can also explain the optionality of clitic climbing and the relation between cliticization and case. Contains 31 references. (MDM)

This study investigates the phenomenon of obligatory dative doubling, examining data based upon a critique of two analyses of clitic doubling in Spanish within different grammatical frameworks. Previous analyses propose that dative clitic doubling is obligatory whenever the Noun Phrase in indirect position is not a semantic Recipient/Addressee (Goal). The data presented demonstrate that obligatory clitic doubling does not depend solely on the thematic role of the dative but that other features must be considered. The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 reviews an analysis proposed within Relational Grammar and outlines structural and theory-based problems with the argument; Section 3 summarizes another analysis regarding dative clitic doubling proposed within Government and Binding theory as well as potential theory-based problems and shows the similarities with the earlier theory. Section 4 discusses thematic roles and presents data that cannot adequately be accounted for by either analysis. Section 5 presents implications for further research. (JL)

This paper sketches an explicitly non-lexicalist application of grammatical theory to Huallaga (Huanuco) Quechua (HgQ). The advantages of applying binding theory to many suffixes that have previously been treated only as objects of the morphology are demonstrated. After an introduction, section 2 outlines basic assumptions about the nature of HgQ categories and structures, and section 3 discusses inflection, proposing an analysis of SUBJECT MARKING ANOMALY phenomena. Section 4 argues that HgQ's complementizers are really its case-marking suffixes. Section 5 deals with the possessive suffixes, showing that in Agr-P they are mildly anaphoric. Section 6 focuses on switch reference, deriving a wide range of facts from some structural assumptions and then claiming that "-r"'advss' is anaphoric and the possessive suffixes in Agr-S are pronominal. Section 7 discusses "infinitives," claiming that "-y" is anaphoric. Section 8 discusses uses of "-q," claiming that it is anaphoric. Section 9 sketches one verb incorporation phenomenon and shows how this fits in with other claims made here. Section 10 describes differences between HgQ and the Quechua of Ancash. (JL)

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that children's use of Japanese case particles obeys the grammatical principles introduced at the earlier stage of language development. In previous studies concerning the acquisition of Japanese case examined through the experimental method, it has been suggested that children acquire the functional use of case particles at around 5 years of age. This study examines the performance of Japanese case particles in children's natural speech in 2- to 5-year-olds within the framework of the theory of generative grammar. Data focusing on the phenomena "case marker drop" is analyzed. In conclusion, this paper demonstrates that 2-year-olds use Japanese case particles in much the same way that adults do and it will be further suggested that their use of case particles obeys the hierarchical structure of the Japanese language as well as that of the semantic structure. (VWL)

Two types of causative constructions in Korean behave differently both syntactically and semantically. This paper presents the syntactic differences between syntactic causative constructions and morphological causative constructions in terms of merger process of argument structures, and in the Case assignment in the two constructions in terms of the Case transmission mechanism. (Contains 8 references.) (Author)

One characteristic of causative verbs in French, Spanish, and Italian is that the subject of the embedded verb appears to the right of its object (if it has one). A second distinguishing property is the Case that appears on the subject embedded under the causative verb. It is always either accusative or dative, depending on the transitivity of the embedded verb. An explanation for these facts need not assume rules of Verb Phrase (VP) preposing, the preposing of any projection of V, rules involving the internalization of an external argument, or that the embedded subject is an argument of the matrix verb. Rather the causative facts can be explained within recent hypotheses that subjects are base-generated within the maximal projection of V. Specifically, it is argued that the subject appears inside the embedded VP complement of the causative, and is Case-marked by the embedded verb. It is suggested that the embedded verb is endowed with an extra Case-marking ability, transmitted from the causative verb. This account explains the distinct patterns of Case-marking that appear on the embedded subject for transitive, unergative, and lexical dative verbs in both the "faire"-infinitive and the "faire par" constructions. (JL)

Most studies that have been conducted on locative constructions in many languages show the relationship between the figure and the ground in terms of geometrical or topological terms. This report shows that in Sinhala the locative expressions answer not only the question "Where is the object X," but also indicate how the figure is oriented in relation to the ground. It is also shown that the verb forms appearing in Sinhala locative expressions are sensitive to the animate/inanimate distinction. The major goal of the study is to show how the equivalents of English spatial prepositional expressions are constructed in Sinhala and how they differ from expressions in English. It is concluded that spatial expressions in Sinhala show that what Sinhala speakers conceive and conceptualize are not only the relation of the spatial entity to the localizer, but also the states, events, and actions that are involved in originating those schematizations. (JL)

This work examines the developing second language (L2) grammar of a 4-year-old girl who was a native speaker of Spanish and who acquired English as an L2. The evidence suggests that, in contrast to some recent proposals for child first-language acquisition, in the case of child L2 acquisition, nonthematic properties such as Case and INFL systems appear to be operative from the beginning. Three types of evidence are presented. One piece of evidence relates to the early emergence of the copula. A second piece of evidence concerns verbless utterances containing "for." It is proposed that there is an implicit verb in these utterances and that Case theoretic reasons force movement of the post-verbal object to a pre-verbal position. In this position, the object is assigned Case by"for," which is held to be in INFL. A third piece of evidence concerns complement clauses of "want." Although the subject has difficulties in determining that "want" is an Exceptional Case Marking verb, the data suggest that she knows and obeys the Case filter. Extensive notes are appended; contains 45 references. (Author/JP)

St. Clair's Comanche texts, collected in 1902, appear to exhibit a very uncharacteristic form of objective case marking along with "same subject" dependent clause types unknown elsewhere in the language. Proper interpretation of the materials and the circumstances in which they were transcribed leads to an analysis in which turn-of-the-century Comanche was unremarkable, at least in the matters considered here. (Author)

A description is presented of a computer-assisted language analysis system (CALAS) which can serve as a method for isolating and displaying language utterances found in conversation. The purpose of CALAS is stated as being to deal with the question of whether it is possible to detect, isolate, and display information indicative of what is happening in a conversation and ultimately to determine and predict outcomes of human interaction on the basis of speech patterns. Section I contains an introduction to CALAS and lists the criteria used in developing the system; the following section discusses conceptualizations of natural language interaction. Section III describes the method adopted for the representation of language presented in interaction as a modified form of case grammar. Section IV treats the mechanics of automated processing of natural language, while section V discusses CALAS as a basis for interpreting natural language. A brief final chapter sketches some future plans for the refinement of CALAS and its empirical use in dialogue analysis. (PB)

The ergative construction is characteristic of all 37 languages of the Caucasian group. After definition of "subject" and "object," a summary is given of 13 Caucasian intransitive and transitive sentence-types, with respect to the case forms of their subjects and objects. The principal "symptoms" of ergativity are: (1) subject in an oblique (ergative) case; (2) object in the nominative (or absolutive) case; (3) verb agrees in class and/or person and number with the object; and (4) in N.W. Caucasian only, pronominal prefixes in the sequence O-S-V. Numerous deviations are discussed. Arguments are presented against the once-popular view that the ergative construction is "really" a passive construction. In the N. Caucasian languages, the ergative transitive construction systematically contrasts with a nominative transitive construction (subject in nominative, object in nominative or oblique case). The ergative construction highlights the effect of the verbally expressed activity on the object; the nominative construction highlights the activity of the subject. Ergativity in all ergative languages can be classified as Functional (i.e., in meaningful contrast with a non-ergative transitive construction), as in N. Caucasian, Chukot-Kamchadal, Eskimo-Aleut, or Formal (i.e., as a mere obligatory formal feature of transitive sentences), as in Georgian and the Iranian, Dardic, and Indic ergative languages. (Author)

This paper addresses itself to the question of why the English language should have levelled almost all of its inflections, and what the relationship is between the breakdown of the case system and the rise of fixed word-order, prepositional phrases, and verb periphrases. The explanation proposed for the phenomenon of syntactic drift is considered superior to the traditional explanation of the erosive effect of phonological change, and to the postulation of a metacondition responsible for the proliferation of free-standing segments rather than bound morphemes. First of all it is shown that Old English and Modern English are structurally more similar than has traditionally been assumed, that changes evident in Modern English can be traced from the earliest documentations of Old English. It is further shown that the answer cannot be found within the history of English, but rather, that the independent but parallel developments which take place in related languages are due to the structural features of the protolanguage, in this case, the Indo-European protolanguage. Finally it is shown that, while word-order change is not the sole cause of syntactic changes, it can be called upon to relate many diachronic developments which have until now defied explanation. (Author/AM)

The creative oral language elicited from 45 preoperational and 40 concrete operational first grade students was analyzed to study the relationship between cognitive development and the types of case relationships produced. Each child's language was analyzed for eight noun/verb relationships, including state, process, action, experience, location, direction, duration, and instrumentals. The findings indicated that the type of language a child produces is limited by the child's cognitive capacity. The preoperational youngsters produced more static language because they were functioning with static and immobile thought. The concrete operational subjects, on the other hand, were more used to operating with dynamic thought processes, so their language reflected a more dynamic nature, such as the increased production of extranuclear sentence elements like locatives, ablatives, durations, and instrumentals. (RL)

Preschoolers' ability to understand grammatical relations in passives and to generalize was studied using animate referents. Three- to five-year-old children were taught to produce passive sentence descriptions of events in which animacy of the actor and acted-on object were varied. After pretesting to determine passive sentence comprehension, the experimenter used toys to enact 32 actor-plus-action-plus-object events, and described 20 events in passive sentence form. Then the child was asked to describe the event without benefit of the experimenter's example. Three types of toys were used to enact the events: (1) animate (e.g., girl, horse); (2) dynamic inanimate (e.g., train, ball); and (3) static inanimate (e.g., house, piano). Training conditions were as follows: animate actors acted on dynamic inanimate objects; dynamic inanimate actors acted on animate objects; and the acted-on objects were static inanimate things. It was found that when the referents in the event coincided with particular word order propensities, production preceded comprehension. Children who were unaware that the grammatical subject and object in passives correspond to the underlying object and subject still produced sentences which observed these relations. Apparently, a linguistic rule is not always the base for correct word order. It is suggested that the discrimination between animate and inanimate actors that emerged may not involve the entity's capacity for independent action, but may involve the child's naming a referent in preverbal or in postverbal position according to the referent's relative salience. (SW)

The theoretical generalization that no lexical material can occur between a Wh-element and a verb in any clause in Basque is challenged, and it is argued that case is not assigned structurally in the Basque language. The account demonstrates how a number of well documented properties of Basque may combine to produce this grammatical result, and an attempt to capture the significance of several specific syntactic relationships (e.g., theta-role discharging, case assignment, and focalization) for the proper definition of barriers is presented. (MSE)

The application of the "back-propagation" learning algorithm to the task of determining the right set of features corresponding to the words in an input sentence is described. Features that are specific to particular nouns and verbs, that indicate whether a nominal constituent is singular or plural, definite or indefinite, and that furnish case-frame information, are discussed. On examination, it appears that the network has learned concepts appropriate to the domain of natural language processing. The learning also generalizes well to novel sentences. Three related experiments are described. The shortcomings of the network are discussed, and ideas are suggested for an alternative model that should overcome some of these shortcomings. (Author/DJD)