A uniform analysis of global & local argument encoding patterns. A local and cyclic approach

In languages with global case splits (GCS), an overt case marker shows up on one of the arguments of a transitive verb if the internal argument is higher on a Silverstein hierarchy than the external argument. Thus, it seems that case assignment in vP either requires look-ahead or has to apply counter-cyclically. In this paper, I present a strictly local analysis of GCS in a derivational framework. To this end, I depart from the traditional assumption that case depends on the φ-features of both arguments of a transitive verb in GCS languages. Furthermore, I show that the approach can also be extended to capture Local Case Splits, non-split case systems as well as direct-inverse marking. Besides, Burzio’s Generalization falls out as a byproduct of the analysis.