ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the question as to what role formal features play in human language. It has been generally assumed in current linguistic theory that while Φ-features carry out important tasks in narrow syntax, the role of case features remains rather obscure. The chapter suggests that case features of nominal expressions, as well as Φ-features of verbal elements, do in fact play an active role in determining labels of syntactic objects (SOs). In dependent-marking languages, case serves as a key feature in building up the system of predicate-argument relations, which constitutes a core portion of the human language of thought. The role of case in this type of language actually corresponds to the role of agreement in head-marking languages. The chapter presents some consequences of the proposed case theory for the analysis of peculiar case phenomena in Japanese. It discusses the phenomenon of case alternations, particularly nominative-genitive conversion.
