Case Theory (Class Exercise -- Graduate Syntax I)

Syntax I Fall 2025

Class Exercise: Case Theory

Objective: To evaluate and compare different theories of case.

Format: Students will break up into small groups of two or three, and take 15-20 minutes to brainstorm. They are allowed to look up references on their devices or on the internet. After this initial period, there will be a discussion in class about the different theories. Be prepared to discuss concrete data points from particular languages. 

You do not have to limit yourselves to the papers assigned for class. You can also use knowledge that you have of particular languages, and/or information that you have gotten from other papers, textbooks, colleagues, talks or other courses. If you have not done the assigned reading, make sure to do so before Wednesday (December 3, 2025). You should also look at Marantz 1991, if you have time (it is short).

One student will be the designated transcriber. They are responsible for transcribing the points made in class, typing them up, and sending them to the class afterwards (within a period of 48 hours). 

Assigned Reading (to read before exercise):

Marantz, Alec. 1991. Case and Licensing. Proceedings of ESCOL, 234–253.

Cornell Linguistics Club. Republished in Reuland 2000, 11–30.

Pesetsky, David and Esther Torrego. 2011. Case. In Cedric Boeckx (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Minimalism, 52-72. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Schafer, Florian and Elena Anagnostopoulou. To Appear. Case and Agreement in Distributed Morphology. A. Alexiadou, R. Kramer, A. Marantz and I. Oltra-Massuet (eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Distributed Morphology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Guiding Questions:

1. What assumptions define the various theories?

2. What assumptions distinguish the theories?

3. What assumptions do the theories have in common?

4. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each theory?

5. What are the standard core examples of each theory (and how are they accounted for)? 

6. What particular data points are of interest in deciding between the theories? 

7. What does each theory say about Burzio's generalization? 

8. What questions do you still have about the theories? 

9. Are there useful generalizations, concepts and principles that fall outside the theories we have looked at in class?