Voice, Case and the External Argument: The perspective from Urdu
This dissertation explores the relationships between Voice, case and the external argument, as seen in Urdu. The dissertation investigates three broad connections between these phenomena. The first is that between the external argument and accusative case, as reported in Burzio's Generalisation (Burzio, 1986). I argue that the presence of an external argument does not play a role in accusative case assignment; instead, the crucial factor is the type of Voice head present. This brings us to the second connection explored in this thesis, Voice and case. I propose that the active/non-active distinction can be recast in terms of case. Non-active Voice heads assign an inherent oblique case to their specifier, while active Voice heads assign structural accusative case to an argument in their c-command domain, that is, the direct object. Assuming each functional head can only assign case once, the status of non-active Voice as an inherent case-assigner not only explains but predicts that it will not assign accusative case. Lastly, I investigate the effect of case on the notion of subjecthood. I show that the behaviour of an argument with respect to some subject properties is conditioned by its case; however, this connection is only indirect, and reflects the relationship or lack thereof between the argument and T. This dissertation provides new insights into the relationships between Voice, case assignment and the external argument in Urdu, specifically related to the nature of Voice heads, Burzio's Generalisation and notions of subjecthood. Analyses of several other phenomena, such as agreement, applicative constructions, light verb constructions, and ergative case assignment, are also presented as part of the discussion. The dissertation leaves us with big-picture questions surrounding the functional role of Voice, and the typology of Voice heads, both in Urdu and cross-linguistically, as well as questions about issues related to case, such as the structural representation of case, case assignment mechanisms, and the relationship between case and agreement. Through the course of the dissertation, I also highlight dialectal differences between Hindi and Urdu, and how these might be captured formally. The syntactic literature generally uses the umbrella term 'Hindi-Urdu', with little to no consideration of dialectal differences. Distinguishing between Hindi and Urdu is a first step in taking into account dialectal variation, bearing in mind, of course, that this is still an extremely broad division for what is a spectrum with many dialects within 'Hindi' and 'Urdu'.
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