ON SOME SUBJECT OBJECT NON-ASYMMETRIES IN MOHAWK

This article considers certain differences between subjects and objects in English that are not found in Mohawk, a nonconfigurational language with extensive agreement morphology. In particular, disjoint reference effects, island conditions, and weak crossover phenomena are investigated in some detail. Facts from these domains motivate a theory of Mohawk clause structure in which most NPs are generated in adjunct positions, along the lines proposed by Jelinek (1984) and others. Clausal arguments, however, do show standard subject-object asymmetries, unlike NPs. This motivates a Case-driven theory of nonconfigurationality, and shows that it is correct to attribute configurational representations to Mohawk after all.