Notes on Case Stacking and Pseudo-ECM Constructions

Ahn, Hee-Don; Cho, Sungeun

doi:10.30961/lr.2024.60.3.221

Lang. Res. 60(3):221-250

pISSN: 0254-4474, eISSN: 2586-7113

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30961/lr.2024.60.3.221

Article

Notes on Case Stacking and Pseudo-ECM Constructions^*

Hee-Don Ahn¹, Sungeun Cho²^,^†

Author Information & Copyright ▼

¹Konkuk University

²Yeungnam University

^†Corresponding author: Professor Department of English Education Yeungnam University 280 Daehak-ro, Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk 38541, Korea, E-mail: scho1007@ynu.ac.kr

^* We would like to sincerely thank the three anonymous reviewers of this journal for their constructive and insightful comments. Their feedback has been instrumental in refining our analysis and improving this work’s overall clarity and rigor. This paper was supported by Konkuk University in 2022 (First author).

ⓒ Copyright 2024 Language Education Institute, Seoul National University. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: Oct 14, 2024 ; Revised: Dec 16, 2024 ; Accepted: Dec 23, 2024

Published Online: Dec 31, 2024

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the mechanisms for licensing structural cases within a minimalist framework, focusing on two key approaches: case-by-agreement and the dependent case. The case-by-agreement model assigns grammatical cases through agreement with functional heads, such as T or v, based on feature matching via the Agree operation. In contrast, the dependent case approach posits that case assignment is determined by the presence of competing nominals within a local domain. By examining case stacking and pseudo-ECM(exceptional case marking) constructions in Korean, this study demonstrates the limitations of case-by- agreement in accounting for unexpected case marking, such as accusative-marked subjects. The dependent case model, with its relational view of case, offers a more flexible explanation, particularly for complex phenomena such as Korean case stacking. Additionally, parallels between PP/NP subjects in English and major/grammatical subjects in Korean suggest universal principles of case assignment and subject behavior. This study argues that the dependent case approach provides a more robust, minimalist-consistent framework for analyzing cross-linguistic case phenomena.

Keywords: case theory; case-by-agreement; dependent case; case stacking; pseudo-ECM; PP subjects in English

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Notes on Case Stacking and Pseudo-ECM Constructions*

ABSTRACT

References

Notes on Case Stacking and Pseudo-ECM Constructions^*