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Question Formation In Mernyang
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The main principle of θ
theory is the ‘θ-CRITERION’ which requires each thematic role to be
uniquely assigned i.e. each constituent denoting an argument is assigned
just one θ role and each θ role is assigned to just one argument
denoting constituent. For example:
Ahmed went to the market by car.
IP
Spec II
NP I VP
N1 TNS AGR
(Past) spec VI
AGENT NO V NP PP
N1 PI NP
Location NO PO NI
NO
Ahmed go market by car
In the illustration above, verb phrase assigns agent role to the subject NP.
Verb assigns patient role to the object of the verb and preposition assigns locative role to its NP
1.6.5 CASE THEORY
Kristen
(1991:496) states that ‘case theory regulates the distribution of
phonetically realized NPs by assigning abstract case to them. It deals
with the principle of case assignment to constituents. Chomsky assures
that all NPs with lexical contents are assigned (abstract) case. Case
is assigned by a set of case assigners to the governed. Horrocks (1987)
says the basic idea is that case is assigned under government i.e. the
choice of case is determined by the governor in any sentence. For
instance, a lexical head X may be said to govern its sisters in X-bar
and certain lexical heads also have the power to case mark certain of
their complements. Thus
NP subject is assigned normative by INFL; verb assigns accusative case to object of the verb while prepositi
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