Argument And External Argument

1654 Words4 Pages

The Case on external argument is affected by the presence of modal auxiliary in the transitive verb string. In such constructions, the external argument is not marked with the ergative Case even when the verb string consists of perfective aspect, which is morphological marked on the modal auxiliary that usually follows the main verb, as shown in (4a) below. Rather, the external argument is marked with the nominative Case and it is in agreement with the verb string for gender, number, and person. On the other hand, it does not affect the nominative Case to external argument. Even it does not change when the verb string consists of imperfective aspect, which is, in a similar fashion, morphologically marked on the modal auxiliary, as in (4b). …show more content…

ਉਸ ਤੋਂ ਕੁਰਸੀ ਹਿਲਾਈ ਨਹੀਂ ਗਈ। ʊs t̪õ kʊrsi hɪlai nəhĩ ɡəi he-INS chair.F.SG.NOM move-PFV.F.SG not go-PFV.F.SG
‘He is not able to move the chair.’

The external argument in both the examples (5a & b) is marked with the instrumental Case because of the presence of the capabilitative auxiliary ɟa. In addition, the transitive verbal string agrees with the internal argument in both examples.

5.2.2. A Minimalist analysis of simple transitive verb constructions in Punjabi
Under this section, we will present a Minimalist analysis of each pattern of the projection of transitive verb in Punjabi discussed above. In addition to this, we will also try to address the Case checking and agreement facts involved in such constructions. Discussion starts with the analysis of first pattern, which is conditioned with the imperfective or perfective aspectual morphology in the verbal string. In addition, with such conditions, the constructions can be further seen into three types; first, when the aspect is imperfective, the external argument is in nominative Case and agrees with the verbal string for φ-features.
(6) a. ਮੁੰਡੇ ਰੋਟੀ ਖਾਂਦੇ ਹਨ। (6) mʊnɖe roʈi kʰãd̪e …show more content…

Subsequently, the verb raises to the functional head Asp to check the aspectual features (perfective in this case), which is required for derivation to converge. Along with this, we are repeating the same assumption here again that the derivational process involves TP, which is the projection of head T with Ø (zero) value and carries [+finite] feature along with EPP and nominative Case

Open Document