Suggested Answers and Hints - Chapter 6nom acc
e [John] will never trust [Jane].
nom acc nom
f [Which experiment] 2 did 1 [the professor] e 1 mean e 2 when [he] I^0 asked
nom acc
whether [we] were able to do [it]?
nom acc acc
g [John] I^0 read [an interesting book about [the cold war]].
nom nom acc
h [It] was raining when [I] I^0 looked out of [the window].
nom acc acc
i [The children] I^0 wanted [it] to be snowing during [the whole day].
nom acc acc
j [Jane] I^0 believed [Jack] to be able to repair [the car].
Nominative Case is always assigned by finite inflection. Sometimes the I^0 head is
not occupied by any sound material, as in sentences (1a), (1c), (1g), (1h), (1i) and (1j).
In other cases it is occupied by a modal auxiliary (modal auxiliaries are inherently
finite) or by the verbs be, have or do (in which case it is still the zero inflectional
morpheme that assigns case). In some cases like in sentence (1f), the I^0 moves further
to a higher position. In this case the Case is assigned by the trace of the auxiliary (it is
assigned by the auxiliary before it moves). Sometimes DPs move further after
receiving Case like the DP which experiment in sentence (1f). Here the chain receives
Case only once, only the foot of the chain (the trace of the DP) is in a Case-marked
position. Accusative Case is assigned by verbs and prepositions to their complement
DPs. Some verbs and the complementiser for are able to assign accusative Case to the
subject position of their complement IPs, as in sentences (1b), (1i) and (1j). Passive
verbs are not able to assign case to their complement DPs, thus these DPs have to
move in order to receive Case.