Case and Expletives: Notes Toward a Parametric Account

It will be the purpose of this paper to explore a number of phenomena and problems revolving around the general issue of Case assignment, especially as concerns expletive NPs. The question of why expletives require Case, which has become a difficult one under several recent theories, will come under particular scrutiny. Recent proposals of Chomsky (1986) concerning expletives and of Belletti (1988) will (eventually) be considered in some detail. Evidence will be offered for Belletti’s proposal that Case transmission does not exist, and, consequently, that even arguments associated with expletives must be directly Case-marked. Certain problems that this raises for the analysis of expletives of Chomsky (1986) will be examined and a refinement of Chomsky’s expletive replacement will be offered.