Case and agreement puzzle in the Moksha debitive

Journal of Uralic Linguistics. 2023. No. 1.

Шикунова А. С.

This paper is dedicated to the debitive construction in Moksha Mordvin, which exhibits pat- terns unusual for a dative-infinitive construction (DIC). The non-finite verb can agree with its internal argu- ment but not with the external one. The internal argument can bear both the definite nominative case, which is restricted to subjects of finite clauses, and the definite genitive case, which can mark both direct objects and definite possessors. Personal agreement is mandatory in the former case but prohibited in the latter. I propose that the Moksha debitive construction includes a null modal verb that assigns dative to the external argument of the infinitive (contra what Tsedryk et al. (2017), Efremov (2020) suggest for Russian DICs). The case marking on the internal argument is determined by its structural position, in accordance with Dependent Case theory (Marantz 2000, Bobaljik 2008). The case of Moksha demonstrates that the dative case in DICs can be lexical as well as structural and that an argument for biclausality can be constructed based on case and agreement patterns.

Keywords: morphology, syntax, agreement, Moksha language, Dependent case theory, dative-infinitive construction

Publication based on the results of: Languages of Russia: morphosyntax and its interaction with other modules (2022)