Θ-Role Assignment Autonomous from Case Assignment

Abstract

Since Aoun 1979 noticed the parallelism between Case and λ-role, Chomsky 1981 and other grammarians have been attempting to reduce the Case Filter to the λ-criterion by imposing the Visibility Condition on λ-role assignment, whose essential effect is that a category is visible for λ-marking only if it is assigned Case. In this article, I will cast doubts on the Visibility Condition and claim that a more plausible version of the Visibility Condition should be that a category is visible for λ-marking only if it is [—V]*. This is tantamount to adopting Emonds' 1985 assumption that λ-role assignment is autonomous from Case assignment. © 1988, International Heart Journal Association. All rights reserved.