Non-Canonically Case-Marked Subjects

Interest in non-canonically case-marked subjects has been unceasing since the groundbreaking work of Andrews and Masica in the late 70’s who were the first to document the existence of syntactic subjects in another morphological case than the nominative. Their research was focused on Icelandic and South-Asian languages, respectively, and since then, oblique subjects have been reported for language after language throughout the world. This newfangled recognition of the concept of oblique subjects at the time was followed by discussions of the role and validity of subject tests, discussions of the verbal semantics involved, as well as discussions of the theoretical implications of this case marking strategy of syntactic subjects. This volume contributes to all these debates, making available research articles on different languages and language families, additionally highlighting issues like language contact, differential subject marking and the origin of oblique subjects.

Michela Cennamo, University of Naples Federico II:
The collection of papers in this volume represents an authoritative study, by both leading scholars and younger researchers. It provides important insights, new data, analyses and research perspectives, from both under-researched and thoroughly discussed languages, in a highly valuable comparative perspective and with a multiplicity of theoretical approaches and breadth of issues covered, including also the role played by contact and inheritance in shaping the phenomenon. The volume also re-addresses the issue of the parameters involved in the identification and definition of the notion of subject. It will stand out as a reference work for future studies on the issue.