A Cyclic Agree account of the Romance faire–infinitive causative: New evidence from Catalan

Abstract

Catalan, like Italian and French, displays (notwithstanding certain complications) a pattern in causatives under facere such that the causee can be realized as dative only where its complement is “transitive.” We propose an analysis of this pattern based on Cyclic Agree. On our approach, transitivity-sensitive dative arises where a probe agrees with a DP that requires case licensing, having previously probed (potentially defectively) a closer XP of any kind. Downward Cyclic Agree is possible, in this context, because neither goal c-commands the other, which makes them both visible to a single higher probe. This model captures the basic transitivity-sensitive pattern and the Strict Person–Case Constraint effects observed in this domain as well as the fact that dative is triggered not only by DPs requiring structural/dependent case but also by “defective interveners” (PPs, CPs, case-marked DPs/clitics). We show that this Agree-based account has potential advantages over competing dependent-case approaches.