Phi-features and the Modular Architecture of Language, 2011 Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory Series, Vol. 81

This monograph investigates the modular architecture of language through the nature of "uninterpretable" phi-features: person, number, gender, and Case. It provides new tools and evidence for the modular architecture of the human language faculty, a foundational topic of linguistic research. At the same time it develops a new theory for one of the core issues posed by the Minimalist Program: the relationship of syntax to its interfaces and the nature of uninterpretable features. The work sets out to establish a new cross-linguistic phenomenon to study the foregoing, person-governed last-resort repairs, which provides new insights into the nature of ergative/accusative Case and of Case licensing itself. This is the first monograph that explicitly addresses the syntactic vs. morphological status of uninterpretable phi-features and their relationship to interface systems in a similar way, drawing on person-based interactions among arguments as key data-base.

Acknowledgments.-Conventions and glosses.-Preface.-1 Modularity, phi-features, and repairs.-1.1 Introduction. 1.2 Modular architectures.1.3 Phi-features across modules.1.4 Repairs at the interface.-2 Phi-features in realizational morphology.2.1 Modularity, morphology, and phi-features.2.2 Opaque cliticization and agreement. 2.3 Gaps and synthetic-analytic alternations.2.4 The limits of a modular signature.-3 Person Hierarchy interactions in syntax.3.1 Person hierarchies and PH-interactions.3.2 PH-interactions in Ojibwa and Mapudungun. 3.3 Theories of PH-interactions.3.4 PH-interactions and repairs in Tanoan.3.5 The limits of syntactic PH-interactions.-4 Person Case Constraint repairs in French.4.1 Introduction.4.2 French clitics.4.3 The PCC repair and the Cliticization Requirement.4.4 The syntactic character of the repair.4.4.1 Introduction.4.4.2 Floating quantifiers.4.4.3 Condition B.4.4.4 Right dislocation.4.4.5 Phi-agreement.4.4.6 Overview.4.5 Applicative datives.4.5.1 Introduction.4.5.2 Possessive, dessus, and benefactive datives.4.5.3 Causee datives.4.5.4 Connaître-class causee datives.4.5.5 Experiencer datives.4.5.6 Overview.4.6 Irreparable problems.4.6.1 Introduction.4.6.2 Multiple dative clitics.4.6.3 Arbitrary clitic cluster gaps.4.6.4 Mediopassive se + dative clitic.4.6.5 Datives in DPs and APs.4.6.6 Coordination and modification.4.6.7 Datives in causatives.4.6.8 The weak PCC.4.6.9 Overview.4.7 The PCC, the repairs, and the nature of datives.4.8 Appendix A: Exceptional Case Marking.4.9 Appendix B: Datives in PCC contexts.-5 Repairs and uninterpretable features.5.1 Introduction.5.2 The Person Case Constraint.5.2.1 The Agree/Case approach.5.2.2 Intervention.5.2.3 Agreement, Case, Licensing.5.2.4 Datives.5.2.5 Overview.5.3 The repairs of the Person Case Constraint.5.3.1 The character of the repairs.5.3.2 The choice of mechanisms.5.3.3 Global mechanisms.5.4 The Minimalist Program: uninterpretability, interfaces, and repairs.5.4.1 Uninterpretable features: phi, Case, and Agree.5.4.2 The interface algorithm .5.4.3 Phase theory.5.5 Dependent Case as last-resort.5.6 Unaccusative repairs: Transitivization.5.6.1 Introduction.5.6.2 Basque.5.6.3 Chinook.5.6.4 Finnish.5.6.5 Overview.5.7 Transitive repairs: Strengthening the PP.5.8 Transitive repairs: Strengthening the DP.5.9 Conclusion: The scope and limits of Aspects of .5.9.2 Person and Case licensing.5.9.3 Licensing, Full Interpretation, and .-6 Phi in syntax and phi interpretation.6.1 Phi-alphabets.6.2 Syntactic and intepretive phi-mismatches.6.3 French on.6.4 Person in syntax.6.5 Person in interpretation.6.6.- Conclusion.-Name and Subject index