Argument licensing and agreement in Zulu
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2012.
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | eng |
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2013
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/77875 |
| _version_ | 1811088328195309568 |
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| author | Halpert, Claire |
| author2 | David Pesetsky. |
| author_facet | David Pesetsky. Halpert, Claire |
| author_sort | Halpert, Claire |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2012. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:00:29Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | mit-1721.1/77875 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:00:29Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/778752019-04-11T02:11:50Z Argument licensing and agreement in Zulu Halpert, Claire David Pesetsky. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy. Linguistics and Philosophy. Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2012. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (p. 295-307). In this thesis, I examine some core grammatical phenomena - case licensing, agreement, the EPP - through the lens of the Bantu language Zulu. Zulu has a number of remarkable and puzzling properties whose analysis affords us new insight on the interaction between these components. Despite a number of unusual-looking properties in the domain of nominal distribution, I propose that Zulu has a both a system of asbtract structural case and a system of morphological case. This conclusion is notable because it has long been assumed that Bantu languages lack both of these types of case (e.g. Harford Perez, 1985). Though the type of case system that I propose for Zulu is at its core similar to our current understanding of case, there are a number of differences between the case system I argue for in Zulu and more familiar case systems. In particular, I demonstrate that the positions in which structural licensing occur in Zulu are not the familiar positions of structural licensing: none of the heads that function as structural licensers in a language like English - T0, v0 , and P0 - are licensers in Zulu. The absence of licensing from these positions gives rise to a system in which case-licensing and phi-agreement have no syntactic overlap. I show that the interactions between phi-agreement and morphological case in Zulu provide a novel argument in favor of treating phi-agreement as a syntactic process. I also argue that Zulu has a novel type of morphological case: the augment vowel functions as a freely-applying case-licenser for nominal that lack structural case. The existence of such a morpheme is notable because this type of element has been explicitly ruled out by various theories (e.g. Schutze, 2001) on the grounds that it would render the Case Filter vacuous. Finally, I build on this system of case in Zulu to analyze constructions that involve a puzzling agreement pattern: complex NPs and raised subjects appear to allow optional agreement in positions where Zulu otherwise requires it. I argue that the optional agreement effect in these constructions arises from the possibility for T to agree with a CP. From these construction, we gain insight into the properties of agreement and the EPP in Zulu. Specifically, these constructions demonstrate the inadequacy of a theory of "reverse agree" to capture the patterns in Zulu and the primacy of a syntactic EPP to Zulu syntax. by Claire Halpert. Ph.D. 2013-03-13T16:24:44Z 2013-03-13T16:24:44Z 2012 2012 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/77875 828196391 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 307 p. application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| spellingShingle | Linguistics and Philosophy. Halpert, Claire Argument licensing and agreement in Zulu |
| title | Argument licensing and agreement in Zulu |
| title_full | Argument licensing and agreement in Zulu |
| title_fullStr | Argument licensing and agreement in Zulu |
| title_full_unstemmed | Argument licensing and agreement in Zulu |
| title_short | Argument licensing and agreement in Zulu |
| title_sort | argument licensing and agreement in zulu |
| topic | Linguistics and Philosophy. |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/77875 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT halpertclaire argumentlicensingandagreementinzulu |