Jaume Solà i Pujols - Departament de Filologia Catalana ...

(107) a. There have developed typhoons here
b. John developed theories on that issue
Suppose both indefinite DPs in 0 are assigned Partitive at D-structure, and some
structural Case at S-structure. As we remarked, there is some evidence that Nominative is
assigned to the indefinite DP in 0.a), which would naturally account for the fact that there is
agreement between the verb and the indefinite DP. As for 0.b), it can be naturally assumed that
the indefinite DP receives Accusative Case at S-structure. There is some evidence from Romance
languages pointing to that conclusion. Consider the following paradigm of Causative
constructions (examples from Catalan):
(108) a. Li fa menjar les patates
Him-DAT makes eat the potatoes
'S/he makes him eat the potatoes'
b. El fa menjar
Him-ACC makes eat
'S/he makes him eat'
The generalization is that in Romance (and many other languages') causative
constructions the subject of the infinitive clause is assigned Dative if the infinitive has an
Accusative Case-marked complement; when the infinitive does not have any Accusative
complement, then its subject is assigned Accusative.
According to Baker (1983), the generalization could be expressed as follows: the
complex formed by the causative verb and the infinitive can at most assign one Accusative Case;
if that Case is required by the object of the infinitive, then the subject of the infinitive has to
receive Dative; if not, it is the subject of the infinitive that is assigned Accusative.
1
Now consider the following example: