Catalan intransitive verbs and argument realization

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to analyze the behavior of the single direct argument of intransitive verbs in Catalan, including its encoding as a grammatical function, verbal agreement, case assignment, and expression by means of clitics. Our main claim is that the single direct argument of a clause can be a nominative object. We show that the direct argument of intransitive verbs (whether unaccusative or unergative) alternates between subject and object. The proposed analysis diverges from standard versions of LFG, as it allows an external argument to map onto an object and allows a clause to lack a subject, in violation of the Subject Condition. We propose a new mapping theory in which case assignment plays a major role and account for the agreement facts by assuming a set of agreement features of the clause (AGR) that are identified with a grammatical function (GF), not necessarily the subject, by general constraints.