Syntactic Productivity

Problem for generative approaches to case
58
Nom-Acc is structural case
Nom-Dat is lexical case (idiosyncratic)
... we make a rough and tentative distinction between the core
of a language and its periphery, where the core consists of
what we tentatively assume to be pure instantiations of UG
and the periphery consists of marked exceptions (irregular
verbs, etc.). [emphasis original]
(Chomsky and Lasnik 1995: 19–20)
Bergen Jóhanna Barðdal June 5, 2008