Case Assignment—how accusative and nominal case is assigned to noun—
1, accusative case
When we Merge V-meet and third person- singular-masculine pronoun, we get VP [meet him]. Verves such as meet and help are said to have transitivity. When we merge Verb which has transitivity with Noun, the Noun gets accusative case.
In this respect, constituents which have transitivity act as accusative case assigner. Are there any other constituents which have transitivity? Pronouns seem to have transitivity. We say “speak to him” not * “speak to he”. So, transitive Verve or Pronoun give accusative case to the constituents which they Merge with.
2, nominative case
When we Merge first person pronoun and T-bar [will buy this book], we get TP [I will buy this book]. So, it seems that constituents which Merges with T-bar get nominative case. But when we Merge first person pronoun with T-bar [to leave], we get TP {me to leave}. Then we Merge this TP[ me to leave] with Complementizer- for. We get CP[for me to leave]. Then we Merge this CP[ for me to leave] with V-prefer. We get VP [ prefer for me to leave]. So, just because a constituent Merges with T-bar, it does not mean that nominative case is assigned to the constituent which Merges with T-bar.
Some examples of nominative case assignment are as below.
I will eat dinner at 7.
He has been to Japan twice.
She can swim across this river.
Some examples of accusative case assignment to constituents which Merge with T-bar are as follows.
I believe him to have lies.
I consider her (to be) clever.
When we Merge third person masculine pronoun with T-bar [ has been to Japan twice], we get TP[ he has been to Japan twice]. When we Merge third person masculine pronoun with T-bar [ to have lied], we get TP[ him to have lied]. In the former phrase, third person pronoun- he gets nominative form. In the latter case, third person pronoun gets accusative case-him. Both are Merged with T-bars. What’s the difference.
When we compare T-bar [ has been to Japan] and T-bar[ to have lied], we notice that T-bar[ to have lied] uses T-to. When we look carefully at examples which uses nominative cases, we notice that every pronoun Merges with finite T-bar. Finite T is such Ts as will, -ed, and have. When we use such finite Ts, the tense of the TP is determined by such Ts. For example, when we use future T-will, the TP is understood as having future tense. When we use present tense T-have, the tense of the TP is understood as present tense. Once the finite T is used, the tense of the TP is determined by the T.
In contrast, T-to is infinite. When we say “I believe him to have lied”, the TP [ him to have lied] is present tense or future tense. Probably, this TP is understood as past, but I’m not sure of this. When we say “I believe him to be lying”, this TP is probably present tense. When we say “I believe him to come to school early tomorrow”, the TP is probably understood as having future tense. When we use T-to, we are not sure of the tense of the TP phrase. So, T-to is called infinite. The tense is not determined by infinite T.
When we Merge finite T-bar with pronoun, the pronoun realizes as nominative case. When we Merge infinite T-bar with pronoun, the pronoun realizes as accusative case. Such accusative case seems to be assigned to the pronoun by the preceding Verb such as believe.
reference)
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