Introduction

In previous chapters a core syntax was introduced, and a basic sort of mapping outlined between that syntax and a corresponding interpretation. In the process, various paradigms and related puzzles were studied that emerge around the notion ‘argument’, especially when considered vis-à-vis conditions on Case assignment. In this chapter, a more detailed analysis is given of the Case mechanisms themselves.

Most significant progress within Case Theory has been made in clarifying the conditions under which Case is determined, traditionally via government. Classical minimalism rethought this in terms of head/specifier relations achieved by way of displacement of a Case assignee into a checking (as opposed to assigning) position. However, as the primitive nature of this dependency came to be questioned, it became reasonable to treat Case valuation as a process of long-distance Agree. In what follows Case conditions are reexamined from this perspective, in an attempt to unify various instances of Case determination as involving a preposition. In the second section various puzzles are sketched that relate to Case. A way is suggested to unify the bizarre results of having only prepositions assign Case, which forces intriguing readjustments in the system. In the third section Case conditions are studied that go beyond that core situation, arguing that cyclic derivational dynamics play a central role in the nature of the valuation they imply. An account of the Case hierarchy is given in section 4, which presupposes distinguishing context-free from context-sensitive conditions.