Nominative and ergative languages : towards a unified of case checking

Abstract

This paper offers an analysis of Nominative and Ergative Case systems in the spirit of Chomsky's (1995, 1998) Minimalist Program. In particular. Chom$ky's elimination of AGR from the inventory of admissible functional heads leads to a re-discussion of most generative analyses on Ergativity, which were crucially based on the role played by AGR-heads. In this work I will show that the two Case systems can merely be seen as the outcome of a principle of Economy which establishes that only one Case in a transitive sentence needs to be marked. In other words, the crucial point is not which Case is checked in an unaccusative clause, as traditionally assumed, but rather which of the two Cases is marked in a transitive clause. To test the validity of my proposal, I will discuss most of the phenomena commonly linked with Ergativity, while bringing together data from a wide inventory of different languages.