Ecm Verb Information
ECM, or Exceptional Case Marking is a concept of the Government and Binding (GB) theory of syntax in linguistics.
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Introduction
Exception Case Marking is used in GB theory to analyze certain verbs. Verbs in English that have been analyzed as involving ECM include believe and prove, as in:
- Tim believes him to be innocent
- The prosecutor proved her to be guilty
This construction is traditionally referred to as accusativus cum infinitivo in the context of Latin grammar.
Under the GB analysis, the words in boldface used in the above examples, including an accusative noun phrase (NP) and an infinitive verb phrase (VP), form a syntactic constituent, classified inflection phrase (IP). The verb is capable of granting accusative case. Therefore, the NP is analyzed as the specifier of the IPn IP-complement; otherwise the overt NP (him or her in the examples above) would not be assigned to any case, which would violate the Case Filter (which states that all overt NPs must have a case). The head I ('to') in the subordinate clause has a [-Tns] feature that is unable to assign a case. If the IP were embedded in a complementizer phrase (CP), this would certainly block case assignment; thus ECM verbs are analyzed as taking an IP-complement.
ECM verbs are often studied in relation to control verbs and raising verbs, as all three types of verbs involve relations between the argument of a verb in a main clause and the verb of what is analyzed as a non-finite clause. What makes ECM verbs different is that there is no thematic relation assigned by the verb in the main clause to the argument that receives accusative case (him and her in the examples above). Because there is no thematic relation between the main verb and the subject of the non-finite clause, the assignment of the accusative case is unexpected under GB theory. For this reason, this phenomenon is called Exceptional Case Marking.
ECM verbs and complementizers
ECM verbs such as "believe" or "expect" take a complementizer phrase and assign accusative case to the subject of that non-finite clause. For example, "Max expects Maria to word letters carefully." The non-finite clause is "Maria to word letters carefully." This non-finite clause is equivalent to a finite clause, as in "Max expects that Maria will word letters carefully."
In the case of -ing verbs, the use of an accusative or a genitive case pronoun can create an NP or a CP. In "I was surprised by their winning the race," "their winning the race" is an NP, while using "them" in lieu of "their" creates a CP: "them winning the race."
References
Haegeman, Liliane (1994). Introduction to Government and Binding Theory. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 9780631190677.
Lasnik, Howard et al. (2005). A course in Minimalist Syntax: Foundations and prospects. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0-631-19987-X.
Pollard, Carl and Ivan A. Sag (1994). Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar. University of Chicago Press.[1].
Radford, Andrew (2004). Minimalist Syntax: Exploring the Structure of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-54274-X.
See also
Categories: Verbs by type
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