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ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION
Subject Positions in Marshallese
by
Heather Willson
Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics
University of California, Los Angeles, 2008
Professor Anoop Mahajan, Chair
This dissertation examines the position of the Marshallese subject in three different
sentence types: basic declaratives, passives and infinitives. Marshallese subjects may
surface in one of three positions: sentence initially, internally or finally. However,
whether a subject may surface in a particular position is often constrained by clause type.
In addition, some positions require a subject to have a special phonological or
information status, which, I argue, is reflected in the syntax. After providing a description
of the possible subject positions in various clause types, I propose an analysis for each.
In basic declaratives, initial subjects are focused or topics, while sentence internal
subjects (when possible) are neutral. Sentences with these subjects do not have a special
phonological status. However, sentences with final subjects contain rising intonation and
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