Adverbial and Argument-Doubling Clauses in Cree - MSpace

ii)
Full NPs are optional with regard to thematidgrammatical relations
Any NP refemng to the subject, object or indirect object in a Cree sentence is optional. It
does not have to occur for the sentence to be grammatical. This was shown in example
(6) in chapter 1.
iii)
Absence of certain subjectlobject asymmetries
Because the PAH stipulates that pronominal argument languages place oven NPs in non-
argument positions, it provides an explanation for the absence of certain subjectlobject
asymrnetries found in configurational languages. This is especially clear in CO-reference
restrictions, or the lack thereof. For example, certain constmctions that would result in a
Principle C violation in English are perfectly acceptable in Cree. Principle C stipulates that
refemng expressions must be fiee, i.e., not bound by any other element in the sentence. A
Principle C violation occurs in configurational languages when a referential expression is
bound by another NP in an argument position, as is seen in the ungrammatical English
translation of (20b).
(20) a. animêniw JO hn, omô hkomân ki-wîcihik7
that John his-knife pst-help-TA-(O-3)
'That knife of John's, helped hiq.'
b. kî-pikonam [animêniw John, omôhkomân]
pst-break-TE(3-0) that John his-knife
* 'He, broke that knife of John'si. '
These examples are cited fmm Russell and Reinholtz (1995) !ho mdelled these sentences diet Baker's
( 199 1) Mohawk exampies.