Phi-Features and the Modular Architecture of Language

This monograph investigates the modular architecture of language through the nature of "uninterpretable" phi-features: person, number, gender, and Case. It provides new tools and evidence for the modular architecture of the human language faculty, a foundational topic of linguistic research. At the same time it develops a new theory for one of the core issues posed by the Minimalist Program: the relationship of syntax to its interfaces and the nature of uninterpretable features. The work sets out to establish a new cross-linguistic phenomenon to study the foregoing, person-governed last-resort repairs, which provides new insights into the nature of ergative/accusative Case and of Case licensing itself. This is the first monograph that explicitly addresses the syntactic vs. morphological status of uninterpretable phi-features and their relationship to interface systems in a similar way, drawing on person-based interactions among arguments as key data-base.

Provides new tools and evidence for the modular architecture of the human language faculty. Develops a new theory for one of the core issues posed by the Minimalist Program: the relationship of syntax to its interfaces and the nature of uninterpretable features. Establishes a new cross-linguistic phenomenon to study the foregoing, person-governed last-resort repairs, providing new insights into the nature of ergative/accusative Case and of Case licensing itself.

Inhalt
Acknowledgments.- Conventions and glosses.- Preface.- 1 Modularity, phi-features, and repairs.- 2 Phi-features in realizational morphology.- 3 Person Hierarchy interactions in syntax.- 4 Person Case Constraint repairs in French.- 5 Repairs and uninterpretable features.- 6 Phi in syntax and phi interpretation.- Name and Subject index.