Seminar Monday Feb. 3 at 4 PM: Pavel Caha
Pavel Caha (CASTL, University of Tromsø) will give a seminar this Monday, Feb. 3 at 4 PM in the Terrace Room (MJH 4th floor).
Case and its role in spatial expressions
Abstract: In the talk, I look at case marking through the lens of cross-linguistic variation. My focus will be on the following questions: What are the dimensions along which case marking varies from language to language? What are the limits of variation, if any? How can they be captured? What role does case play in spatial expressions? Why do some languages use the same marker for spatial and non-spatial meaning (e.g., dative = allative), while other languages don’t?
I propose that a large part of the variation and the restrictions it is subject to may be captured in a model where case decomposes into several independent syntactic projections ordered in a universal hierarchy. Contrary to previous accounts, I further propose that case marking may apply to PPs (and not only to the DPs embedded inside), and show that a number of facts concerning the syntax of spatial expressions falls out from this proposal.