Towards the typology of person case constraint: Evidence from Hittite
Ekaterina Lyutikova1, Andrei Sideltsev2
1Lomonosov Moscow State University, 2Institute of Linguistics RAS
Abstract. In this paper, we analyse the configurations of Person Case Constraint (PCC) in Hittite, which include both ditransitive and passive/unaccusative construals. We show that Hittite is unique among languages exhibiting PCC with subject weak elements (e.g. Basque, Chinook, Icelandic) in that it involves two loci of licensing clitic pronouns. First, since clitics are only licit as internal arguments in Hittite, clitic licensing characterized with the PCC effects should take place at the vP level. Secondly, since subject clitics are case-dependent on the finite T, they should be case-licensed at the TP level, after their vP-level clitic-licensing. In this way, Hittite introduces a new cell in the typology of PCC languages and demonstrates that PCC may result from agreement processes distinct from case assignment.
Keywords: Person Case Constraint, agreement, Case, argument clitics, Hittite
For citation: Lyutikova E., Sideltsev А. Towards the typology of person case constraint: Evidence from Hittite. Typology of Morphosyntactic Parameters. 2020. Vol. 3, iss. 1. Pp. 57–76.