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Yadgar Karimi

Yadgar Karimi

Academic rank: Associate Professor
ORCID:
Education: PhD.
ScopusId: 21740924800
Faculty: Faculty of Language and Literature
Address: Department of English Literature and Linguistics, Faculty of Literature and Foreign Languages, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj 66177-15175
Phone:

Research

Title
Remarks on Ergativity and Phase Theory
Type
JournalPaper
Keywords
Ergativity; Kurdish; Phase Theory; Transitive; φ-feature
Year
2017
Journal Studia Linguistica
DOI
Researchers Yadgar Karimi

Abstract

This paper discusses one empirical domain where a transitive vP, though being a full propositional construction, does not form a phase. Drawing data from the past transitive structures, aka ergative constructions, in Kurdish, I will demonstrate that the interface-oriented arguments underlying the determination of the first phase (v*P vs. vP) fall short of accounting for the emergent case/agreement pattern in these structures. Instead, à la Chomsky (2008), a view will be endorsed of the first phase in which a vP constitutes a strong phase only if its head is associated with a full complement of φ-features, regardless of whether an external θ-role is projected in [spec,vP]. Thus construed, the identification of a strong phase need not be procrastinated until the whole vP is formed, rather the status of a phase will be decided once a φ-complete/-defective v° enters into the derivation.