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.

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.