Cyclic Case

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Fabian Heck
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 439622645

The project investigates the phenomenon of multiple case assignment (MCA) from a syntactic as well as a morphological perspective. MCA means that one and the same argument receives more than one case value/ case feature in the syntax. Although MCA is well motivated both conceptually and empirically, most current syntactic theorizing does not take it into account. Accordingly, a comprehensive theory of MCA is still missing. On the syntactic side, it will be investigated whether MCA is to be characterized best by case overwriting, case accumulation, or case extension. Depending on the choice being made in the syntax the mechanisms that regulate the realization of multiply case-marked arguments ("case-resolution"') may differ. Theoretical options are cyclic spell-out or some purely morphological resolution strategy. By developing a theory of MCA, the project also aims at providing new perspectives on phenomena originally not related to (multiple) case.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 5175: Cyclic Optimization