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(53) AGR o can optionally assign Nominative Case to Spec of AGR by agreement or to some
other position under government.
(54) The I-subject must receive Case from its AGR-identifier.
The notion of 'receiving Case from' in 0 is intended to cover two notions:
- Case assignment by government.
- Case transmission along an A-Chain (assuming that Spec of AGR, when filled, can
form a Chain with the I-subject).
For languages such as Italian, the I-subject will receive Case from AGR o , which will
directly assign Case to it by government. In English, the I-subject will receive Case from Spec of
AGR, i.e., the DP in Spec of AGR will transmit its Case to the I-subject via A-Chain
transmission. So, the DP in Spec of AGR has to receive Case itself. In a finite sentence, it
receives Nominative Case from AGR. In an infinitival sentence, it receives Accusative (in ECM
constructions) or it is PRO (we will assume that also PRO has Case).
In Italian, AGR o has to assign Nominative Case to its I-subject under government. We
postpone the discussion of infinitival constructions to the next chapter. Let us assume that finite
AGR directly assigns Nominative to the I-subject.
If AGR is the highest functional category, as will be crucial in section 2.3., this means
that AGR does not govern the I-subject. Suppose, however, we adopt the following convention,
which we will revise in Chapter 4 (for the moment let us take it as a provisory stipulation): 72
(55) If AGR o combines with a head X by incorporation, it has the same governing capacities
as X as far as Case assignment is concerned.
72 0 is clearly at variance with Baker's (1985) Government
Transparency Corollary.
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