Case Marking and Category Flagging: Evidence from Slavic

Abstract

Grammatical case is sometimes viewed as dispensable in linguistic theory. The most detailed attempt at relegating case from grammar is that of Pesetsky 2013, where case marking is argued to be category flagging; for example, the accusative on a noun is taken to be the result of a verb flagging the noun with category V. This paper demonstrates that category flagging is real, but distinct from case marking. The main phenomenon under examination is category flagging by Slavic prepositions, where P-flagging is demonstrably dissociated from case marking. Other possible instances of category flagging include N- and V-flagging in languages such as Shipibo, and Numeral flagging in Slavic and Iranian languages.