Checking Theory and Grammatical Functions in Universal Grammar (review)

Oxford University Press offers the readers an interesting exploration of the theory of grammatical functions through the careful study of several grammatical-function-splitting phenomena found in a variety of languages. Hiroyuki Ura’s Checking theory and grammatical functions in universal grammar closely investigates, both from a theoretical and an empirical perspective, the possibilities and limits of an extension of the feature-checking theory elaborated and developed by Noam Chomsky in The minimalist program (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995).

Assuming the Agr-less feature-checking theory suggested by Chomsky, the theory of formal feature checking that U advocates states that formal features, either strong or weak, either [+ interpretable] or [− interpretable], undergo the operation feature checking which always takes place between two features of the same sort, the checkee and the checker, the checkee being in the Checking Domain of the checker. U’s original part consists of the introduction of the property [+ multiple]/[− multiple] which refers to the ability of a feature to enter into only one or more than one checking relations at the level of Logical Form. A [+ multiple] function, as well as a function that may tolerate a violation of Procrastinate, can give birth to multiple Specs. Besides, a [+ interpretable] feature can enter into multiple checking relations because it cannot be deleted even if checked.

Relying on the idea that a grammatical function results from a certain feature-checking relation with a particular head and that some grammatical functions possessed by a single element in a construction in a language are split up into two or even more elements in another construction in the same language, U offers a reasonable explanation to grammatical function-splitting phenomena, an issue that has not found a persuasive answer in the minimalist program. He concentrates on active/inverse voice alternation in Bantu and Apachean languages; anti-impersonal passives in Lango and Imbabura Quechua; the syntactic properties of the dative/quirky subject construction in Japanese/Korean, Tamil, and Icelandic; locative inversion in Bantu and Japanese; and the hot issue of ergativity and its typological variation. U also extends the theory of multiple feature-checking to phenomena with no grammatical function-splitting: double object constructions and overt object shift in Japanese.

This wide crosslinguistic investigation of natural language in the framework of the Chomskian minimalist program finally leads U to the conclusion that subject-oriented grammatical functions have an inclination toward controlling (the missing argument in a subordinate-adjunct clause), toward binding a subject-oriented reflexive and toward inducing subject agreement through the relation between a [+ construable] feature checking and Inflection.

As an overall appreciation, U manages to successfully achieve his main purpose in an original and highly fertile way: He persuasively argues that the minimalist program offers a natural explanation to grammatical function splitting phenomena which were reluctant to the theory of grammar in the minimalist program.