The emergence of case matching in discontinuous DPs

Abstract

AbstractThis paper explores a distinction between two phenomena that yield multiple realizations of case associated with one nominal. The first is the familiar type of nominal case concord; the second is a new phenomenon we label “case iteration.” While case concord involves the morphological realization of case on categorially distinct elements via feature sharing, case iteration arises via a separate mechanism and involves the realization of multiple instances of a functional head, which we model as D. In this sense, the case concord/case iteration distinction mirrors the agreement/clitic doubling distinction in the domain of argument-predicate matching. We argue for the existence of case iteration as a separate phenomenon primarily on the basis of novel data from Tiwa (Tibeto-Burman; India). In Tiwa, traditional case concord in continuous DPs is ruled out, but case iteration is obligatory in discontinuous DPs. We also demonstrate that this phenomenon is attested in Amahuaca (Panoan; Peru) and explore related patterns crosslinguistically.