The locus of case and agreement

Abstract

Structural case-marking has long been one of the most central concerns of generative syntax theory. 1 A widely accepted view is that nominative casemarking takes place outside of VP and hence interacts with both verb inflection and subject placement external to VP (NP-movement). 2 Accusative case-marking is often assumed to take place outside of VP as well, in a Spec,AgroP position.In this paper, I shall argue that structural case-marking (or casematching) takes place vP-internally.On this radically minimalistic view the locus of both nominative and accusative is v*/v (the light verb of Chomsky 1995Chomsky , 1998Chomsky , 1999)), that is to say, v* or v matches nominative case directly, whereas v* activates V as an accusative matcher. 3 My reasons for claiming that structural case-marking is vP-internal are both empirical and conceptual.The empirical arguments stem primarily from 1 The ideas pursued in this paper have been presented (to a varying degree) at several occasions and places: At the 22