A note on oblique case 121
(7) a. diviti se ‘admire’ assigns dative:
Divim se Larisi /*Miki.
admire.1sg rfl Larisa.dat/Miki
‘I admire Larisa/Miki.’
b. ponositi se ‘be proud of ’ assigns instrumental:
Ponosim se Larisom /Miki.
proud.be.1sg rfl Larisa.inst/Miki
‘I am proud of Larisa/Miki.’
c. Passive agent-phrase appears in instrumental:
Oduševljena sam Larisom/Miki.
impress.ptcp.f aux.1sg Larisa.inst/Miki
‘I am impressed by Larisa/Miki.’
Next, consider a further relevant observation made by W&Z, which helps identify
the source of the ungrammaticality demonstrated in (7): A noun phrase headed by an
indeclinable nominal (such as the name Miki in (7)) can in fact occur in V-governed
or N-governed oblique case positions without causing ungrammaticality, as long as
some other (i.e. non-head) element in the NP does morphologically realize the rele-
vant oblique case feature. Thus consider for instance (8) (adapted from W&Z 2001: 547
(12)) showing the effect of adding to the undeclined head Miki some pre-head modi-
fier that overtly manifests the particular oblique case:
(8) a. Divim se (mojoj) Miki.
admire.1sg rfl my.sg.dat Miki
‘I admire (my) Miki.’
b. Oduševljena sam (mojom) Miki.
impressed.ptcp.f aux.1sg my.sg.inst Miki
‘I am impressed by (my) Miki.’
c. Divim se {*braon/lepoj} Miki.
admire.1sg rfl brown/beautiful.sg.dat Miki
‘I admire {brunette/beautiful} Miki.’
The contrast between the acceptability of the modified vs. the unmodified versions of
the oblique NP in examples (8a, b), in conjunction with the contrast in (8c) between
an overtly oblique case-marked adjectival modifier lepoj and a non-case-marked one
braon (an undeclined loan word) provide unequivocal evidence that the ungram-
maticality of indeclinable nominals in oblique case positions shown in (7) is not
caused by the absence of an abstract case feature on the NP (it clearly is shown to be
present by (8)), but is due to a requirement to have the oblique case feature overtly
realized. This led W&Z to formulate the following descriptive generalization (W&Z
2001 : 547 (13)):