https://linguistlist.org/issues/29/29-3488.html
Place of Case in Grammar – PlaCiG
Rethymnon, Crete
18 – 20 October 2018
Student Cultural Center Xenia
16 Sofokli Venizelou str, 74100 Rethymnon Crete
Registration is free.
Please register through Eventbrite:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/placig-tickets-47546140787
This workshop has been made possible through generous funding by:
Arts and Humanities Research Council
Ulster University
University of Crete
Conference website:
https://www.ulster.ac.uk/conference/placig
Case has always been at the forefront of linguistic theorizing but the proper characterization of the morphological expression of grammatical functions and its link to formal syntax has never received a fully satisfactory account. Within Principles & Parameters (P&P) the main theoretical question initially regarded the role of case in languages where it is morphologically expressed, versus languages where it is not. Vergnaud 1977/2008 and Chomsky 1981; 1986 proposed the notion of abstract Case, where case is a requirement for nouns to be licit in the derivation regardless of morphology. An important distinction was between structural vs. inherent case: structural case is licensed in particular positions by case-assigning heads, while inherent case has its value specified in the lexicon, in relation to a specific theta-role. Recent reviews of case theory (Butt 2006, Bobaljik & Wurmbrand 2009; Pesetsky & Torrego 2011, Polinsky & Preminger 2014 i.a.) point out that a lot of questions about the nature and the role of case still remain unanswered: e.g. what is case exactly, and why it is a necessary licenser for nominals. Moreover, work in languages whose alignment of case morphology to grammatical functions has not been one-to-one (e.g. Icelandic-Zaenen, Maling & Thráinsson 1985 i.a and also Marantz 1991 and McFadden 2004; 2010) has increasingly led to an extensive line of research that dissociates morphological case from syntactic licensing of nominals, also addressing the question of where morphological case assignment rules apply, at PF, syntax or Spell-Out (e.g. Zaenen, Maling and Thráinsson 1985, Marantz 1991, Harley 1995, McFadden 2004, and Bobaljik 2008, Pesetsky 2013, Baker 2015 i.a.). Finally, there is the question of cross-linguistic realization of case and its relationship with prepositions. In the classic version of P&P it was assumed that prepositions are case-assigning elements, but recent work analyses case as a structural layer above DPs, like the KP (Lamontagne & Travis 1986; Loebel 1994, Bittner & Hale 1996). More recently Caha 2009 building on Blake 2001 proposed that cases and prepositions are both present in a templatic structure that is realised as a universally ordered series of functional heads above DPs. The relationship between cases and prepositions is reinforced by the diachrony of case systems, where cases are replaced by prepositions. These issues are at the centre of our Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) project ‘Investigating Variation and Change: Case in diachrony’ (AH/P006612/1).
Invited Speakers:
Mark Baker (Rutgers University)
Miriam Butt (University of Konstanz)
David Pesetsky (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Ian Roberts (University of Cambridge)
Arhonto Terzi (Technological Educational Institute of Western Greece)
Organisers:
Christina Sevdali, (c.sevdaliulster.ac.uk) & Dionysios Mertyris, (d.mertyrisulster.ac.uk), Ulster University; Elena Anagnostopoulou, (anagnostopoulouuoc.gr), University of Crete.
Program:
Thursday 18 October 2018
9:00 – 9:30 AM:
Registration
9:30 – 10:30 AM:
Invited talk: Mark Baker (Rutgers University)
”On the Independence of Ergativity and Differential Object Marking within Dependent Case Theory”
10:30 AM – 11:10:
András Bárány & Michelle Sheehan
“Challenges for dependent case”
11:10 – 11:30: Coffee Break
11:30 – 12:10 PM:
Rita Manzini & Ludovico Franco
“What does morphological case tell us about dependent case?”
12:10 – 12:50:
Monica Alexandrina Irimia
“Varieties of structural objects, additional licensing and non canonical case morphology”
12:50 – 13:30:
Dimitris Michelioudakis & Nina Radkevich
Parametrizing selection and case alignment in nominals
13:30 – 15: 30: Lunch
15:30 – 16:30:
Invited talk: Miriam Butt (Universität Konstanz)
“Case and the Space of Events: Evidence from Indo-Aryan”
16:30 – 17:10:
Paul Kiparsky
“Modelling syntactic drift: Indo-Iranian case and agreement”
17:10 – 17:30 PM:
break
17:30 – 18:10 PM:
Jane Middleton
‘A structural analysis of the inherent cases’
18: 10 – 18:50 PM:
Thomas McFadden
“A synthesis for the structural/inherent case distinction and its comparative and diachronic consequences”
Informal social event
Friday 19 October 2018
9:30 – 10:30 AM:
Invited talk: David Pesetsky (MIT)
”Nominative memories of a past life”
10:30 AM – 11:10:
Nigel Duffield
“’She to go and he to follow her, t’is the best anymore’: Theoretical Implications of ‘unmarked’ and ‘default’ nominative Case in English, past and present.”
11:10 – 11:30: Coffee Break
11:30 – 12:10 PM:
Paola Crisma & Giuseppe Longobardi
A unified theory of Case form and Case meaning
12:10 – 12:50:
Olga Kagan
Can Case Be Semantic?
12:50 – 13:30:
Fenna Bergsma
PPs and DPs in Free relatives
13:30 – 15: 30: Lunch
15:30 – 16:30:
Invited talk: Ian Roberts (University of Cambridge)
“Case and Cycles”
16:30 – 17:10:
Lorena Castillo
Parameters of deismo in ECM structures: Evidence from Romance languages
17:10 – 17:30 PM: Break
17:30 – 18:10 PM:
Patricia Schneider-Zioga & Monica Alexandrina Irimia
“On partitive case in Kinade: Evidence for inherent case licensing in Bantu”
18: 10 – 18:50 PM:
Saara Huhmarniemi & Merilin Miljan
“Finnish and Estonian partitive case: in between structure and semantics”
Conference Dinner: venue and info TBC
Saturday 20 October 2018
Special panel on case, prepositions, Greek diachrony
9:30 – 10:30 AM:
Invited talk: Arhonto Terzi
(Technological Educational Institute of W. Greece, Patras)
“Case and Spatial Prepositions”
10:30 AM – 11:10:
Christina Guardiano & Guiseppe Longobardi
“The diachrony of adnominal genitives in Ancient Greek”
11:10 – 11:30: Coffee Break
11:30 – 12:10 PM:
Stergios Chatzikyriakidis, Dimitris Michelioudakis and Giorgos Spathas
“The emergence of iterable prepositional genitives in Greek and its diachronic implications”
12:10 – 12:50:
Vassilios Spyropoulos
“Case, function and PP structure in Ancient Greek”
12:50 – 13:30:
Elena Anagnostopoulou, Dionysios Mertyris and Christina Sevdali
“On the typology of Ancient Greek ditransitives and the structure of datives”
13:30 – 14: 00:
General discussion
Close