Case mismatches in Greek: Evidence for the autonomy of morphology

184 manuel espaol-echevarra and angela ralli
(b) *Opju epileksume, i Anna tha tu dosi ena vravio
whoever-gen choose-perf-1pl, the Anna fut him(cl)-gen- give-perf-3sg a prize
(c) Opjon epileksume, i Anna tha tu dosi ena vravio
whoever-acc choose-perf-1pl, the Anna fut him(cl)-gen- give-perf-3sg a prize
On the contrary, as shown by (8bc), Accusative must surface on the relative
pronoun if the matrix Case is Genitive. Our central claim concerning the
Greek free relative paradigm presented in (3) and (7)(8) is that it cannot
be accounted for in the strict limits of syntax, and that the morphological
specication of Case in the relative pronouns, in interaction with a number of
syntactic processes, is nally responsible for the facts in (3), (7)(8). Asyntactic
account of the fact that the relative pronoun must surface in Genitive Case
if the verb in the free relative has a Dative Case feature (cf. the contrast in
(7)) can be provided on the basis of the distinction between inherent/structural
Case. 5 Assuming that Dative is an inherent Case, tied to -marking (cf. Chomsky
1986b), and involves a+Interpretable feature, we can make sense of why
the Genitive form of the relative pronoun, i.e., the expression of Dative abstract
Case, is obligatory in free relatives involvng a wh-chain with Dative Case. The
deletion of the relevant Case would lead to a violation of Full Interpretation. 6
The behaviour of the Accusative, however, does not allow for a treatment in
terms of the inherent/structural distinction. Whatever choice we make for
Accusative, i.e., be it either inherent or structural, we would not expect the
possibility of the relative pronoun surfacing in Accusative to depend on whether
the CLLD matrix chain involves Nominative, cf. (8a), or Genitive, cf. (8b).
5
6
In Greek, the indirect object shows the same Case as adnominal Genitives, as shown
in (i):
(i) a. Edosa tis Marias to vivlio
gave-1s the-gen Maria-gen the-acc book-acc
`I gave Mariathebook'
b. To vivlio tis Marias
the book the-gen Maria-gen
`Maria's book'
We refer to the Case occurring in (iab) as Genitive, although, as the example in (ib)
indicates, this Case can also check Dative Case.
A detailed presentation of this account falls beyond of the scope of this paper. Anumber
of questions remain unanswered at this point. For instance, there is no conclusive
evidence for the inherent status of Dative in Greek. In addition, the ban on deletion of
forms expressing inherent Dative in free relatives based on the +Interpretable status
of this Case raises the question of why some form of recoverability under deletion is
not at play in these cases.
Acta Linguistica Hungarica 47, 2000