The Person Case Constraint

Abstract

This constraint, which is extremely robust cross‐linguistically, is known as the person case constraint (PCC), comes in several versions (Strong, Weak, Ultrastrong, and Me‐First), and has been related to a number of other phenomena showing restrictions on person agreement. This survey concentrates on different syntactic approaches to the PCC, as these have been developed in the past 15 years or so, focusing on the question of the scope of the constraint and its relation to comparable agreement restrictions in other domains. After presenting the different versions of the PCC and summarizing its main properties, I discuss some representative approaches to the Strong PCC based on Agree and relate Strong PCC effects to comparable restrictions. I then focus on the Weak PCC and the proposals that have been put forth to derive the various versions of the PCC on the basis of parameterizations of properties of Agree. I finally critically discuss (i) a proposal that has treated the PCC in terms of cartography and (ii) a functional, frequency‐based approach.

On the Syntax of Argument Clitics in Hittite

“…There is a tentative generalization (based mainly on Romance data) that datives feed cliticization only as DPs, that is, as applicative arguments (Anagnostopoulou 2003; 2017; Cuervo ). On the other hand, strong pronouns and DPs cannot be case‐licensed in the applicative configuration and are therefore projected in the case‐licensing PP shell, that is, as prepositional datives.…”

“…In many languages, including Romance languages, Greek, Czech, Basque, and Georgian (see Haspelmath for a (non‐exhaustive) list), certain person combinations are restricted when two phonologically ‘weak’ arguments (clitics, weak pronouns, agreement markers) occupy the same domain. Thus, in French, in combinations of a direct and indirect object, both of which are phonologically weak, the direct object may not be 1st or 2nd person (Perlmutter ; Kayne ; Bonet 1991; 1994; Anagnostopoulou 2003; 2005; 2017; Béjar ; Béjar & Rezac ; Rezac 2007; 2011; among many others).…”

“…Constraints on the co‐occurrence of weak arguments can involve various logical relations between feature values (Bonet ; Nevins ; Anagnostopoulou ). The most widespread is the Strong PCC, exemplified by French example (15) above: it prohibits any combination of two weak objects where the direct object is 1st or 2nd person.…”

“…We start by reviewing the common properties of the PCC that Hittite shares with other languages, relying mainly on Anagnostopoulou ().…”

“…(22a–b). Anagnastopoulou () argues that in (22b) the DO is interpreted as a pronoun and thus has an interpretable person feature. Therefore the PCC arises.…”