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A piece of support for the above hypothesis is the fact that, in English, when we have two
objects, it is the first object which is coindexed with AGR in a passive. We can assume, with
Larson (1988), that the first object is higher than the second, the evidence being that there is
asymmetrical c-command from the first to the second (as adduced by Larson).
The general idea is, then, that the Argument becoming the I-subject is always the most
prominent available DP or CP in the c-command domain of AGR. In other words, Burzio's
Generalization is definable on purely structural terms, without making reference to Theta
Theory: the fact that the presence of a projected external θ-role is relevant is due to the
independently assumed fact that the EA is projected in a more prominent position.
0 expresses the idea that it is not DP's that are forced to move to Spec of AGR to get
Case, but rather AGR that is forced to pick up a DP to coindex with it. An implicit assumption,
up to now, is that I-subjects have to end up being assigned Case as subjects (i.e., being for
instance Nominative in finite sentences). We will elaborate on this issue later. If we assume, for
the moment, that Accusative assignment is optional, then BG is derived from Case theory: if the
I-subject is forced to be assigned Case as subject, an object that becomes an I-subject will not be
able to receive Accusative, independently of whether Accusative is available or not.
0 is, on the other hand, an abstract alternative characterization of the EPP, in that it states
that AGR is always coindexed with some I-subject. In the next paragraph we will qualify this
generalization by considering languages where AGR is not always coindexed with an Argument.
1.2. Two Parameters
In this section we will deal with two types of languages where the above formulation of
the EPP does not work. In one case (German impersonal verbs and impersonal passives) we need
a minor parameterization of our formulation. In the other case (Ergative languages) the
parameterization affects the basic shape of the principle.
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