Adverbial and Argument-Doubling Clauses in Cree - MSpace

theory dong the way. For some pronominal argument languages. there are no verbal
clitics to accept argument roles, so phonologically nul1 pronouns (pros) have been posited
within the verbal cornplex (for Cree, cf. Reinholtz and Russell 1995, Blain 1997, Déchaine
and Reinholtz 1998). Pro is a non-overt pronoun that occupies a specific structural
argument position as discussed in chapter 1. For the present analysis of Cree, 1 assume
that there are pros inside the verbal complex that accept the argumental theta-roles
discharged by the verb. In this thesis, I will not examine the positioning of the pros within
the verbal complex6
Since lelinek's (1984) article was published, the term 'non-configurational' has
been more narrowly defined. It is now being used, more or less, as a label for languages
displaying certain imponant characteristics:
( 19) Principal C haracrerktics of Non-Configurationai (Pronominal Argument)
Languages
i) Thematidgrammatical relations do not determine word order
This means, that word order plays no role in determining thematic or grammatical roles.
Unlike English, where word order distinguishes between subjects and objects, a
pronominal argument language does not reiy on word order to identif) these roles.
Example (3) in chapter 1 ihstrated this, where six variations of word order in a simple
sentence do not change the sentence's interpretation.
The hierarchical structure of the pronominal arguments within the verbal complex is presented in a
recent paper by Déchaine & Reinholtz (1998).