1. Lecture 9 Krisztina Szécsényi
Syntax
Lecture 9
Krisztina Szécsényi

2. Case assignment: accusative
Accusative case within the verbal projection is assigned by thematic (agentive or experiencer) light verbal heads. Other environments: after prepositions or the prepositional complementizer for with them For them to win the game would be crucial.

3. Case assignment: nominative
What assigns nominative case? Best way to find out by having a look at the environments (distribution): where do we find DPs in nominative case? They arrived/won the game/are nice. I believe that they won the game. I believe them to have won the game. For them to win the game is crucial.

4. Case assignment: nominative
I believe that they won the game. I believe them to have won the game. A subject is NOT automatically nominative. We have nominative subjects only in finite clauses → nominative case is assigned by the constituent determining the finiteness of the sentence.

5. Finiteness
Finiteness is the functional property associated with verbs. Finiteness is expressed by the inflections of a language. Finite inflections: -s/Ø, -ed, modals Nonfinite inflection: infinitival to Structural position: head of IP

6. Sentence formation
Inflection phrase (IP) Specifier position: canonical subject position, if the head is finite, subjects receive nominative case here from the I head via specifier-head agreement. The inflection also agrees with the subject here. The I head selects a vP/VP.

7. Exam practice Multiple choice test (25)
What is the canonical subject position?
Spec,VP
Spec,vP
Spec,IP
IP,Comp

8. Exam questions
Explain why the following structures are ungrammatical (15): *Them arrived *I believe they to be talented. Draw a tree for the following sentence: (10) The train arrived at the station yesterday.