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(109) Li fa menjar patates
Cl-DAT makes eat potatoes
'S/he makes her/him eat potatoes'
which minimally differs from 0.a) in that the object of the infinitive is indefinite. If it is
indefinite, it has been assigned Partitive (it is enough for our argument that this is at least a
possible option). If Partitive did not additionally require a structural Case, as we are claiming, the
CP patates would not spend the Accusative Case which the complex of verbs can afford, so the
subject of the infinitive could be assigned Accusative, contrary to fact:
(110) *El fa menjar patates
Him-ACC makes eat potatoes
'S/he makes him eat potatoes
So, it is reasonable that Partitive Case is not sufficient by itself to Case-licence a DP.
We could then redefine 0 as 0:
(111) At D-structure, AGR must be coindexed with the most prominent non-Case-saturated
DP or CP in its c-command domain.
where a DP is Case-saturated if the Case it bears is sufficient to licence it, Partitive Case-marked
DPs at D-structure not being so.
Chomsky's (1986-b) characterization of inherent Case requires that inherent Case has to
be realized at S-structure, so it could appear that our special characterization of Partitive Case as
a special inherent Case additionally requiring a structural Case can be accommodated within this
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