Lynen Fellowship - Case and Coordination

University Of Connecticut, Storrs CT

Investigators

Abstract

This project, funded primarily by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany), affords an opportunity for an international collaboration, allowing a German post-doctoral scholar to conduct research in theoretical morphosyntax at the University of Connecticut, with a research group led by Dr. Jonathan Bobaljik. The research project aims to provide a better understanding of unbalanced case forms in coordination. In major European languages, two conjoined noun phrases normally bear the same case forms - in a sentence like "The prize will be given to [us and them]," both pronouns in the bracketed expression are in the accusative form as both serve as the object of the preposition to. It is known that in many languages, only one of the noun phrases in a conjunction will bear the case form appropriate to the conjunction as a whole in this way. For example, in the Uralic language Mari, only the second noun in a conjoined object phrase bears the regular case for the syntactic context the other expression is unmarked. While sporadic examples are known, this project on the one hand undertakes a cross-linguistic survey of these constructions (which have not been systematically surveyed in the literature) and on the other hand develops case studies of selected examples, particularly from Uralic, a theoretically rich group of understudied languages. Theoretically, the research builds on Weisser's (2014) doctoral research on asymmetries in clausal coordination, where it is argued that apparently symmetrical coordinations have an internal hierarchical structure. Research questions to be asked bear on a number of broad themes in linguistic theory including the relationship between case and agreement (asymmetries in coordination are much more well studies in agreement than in case), the role of linear order versus structure in morphological and syntactic generalizations. More broadly, by conducting a broad, cross-linguistic survey along with selected case studies informed by specific research hypotheses, the project contributes to a more refined understanding both of cross-linguistic diversity and the limits of such variation.