On Predication and the Status of Subjects in Niuean

Abstract

This paper explores the issue of subjecthood in an attempt to ascertain if the grammatical function subject has any application in Niuean, an Oceanic language of the Tongic subgroup (Pawley 1966, 1967). Various views of subjecthood will be discussed, and various asymmetries among arguments in Niuean will be examined. The claim will be that in Niuean there is no grammatical division of a sentence into subject and predicate, but rather into core predicate and arguments, with predicate fronting rather than subject externalization satisfying the Extended Projection Principle (EPP: Chomsky 1981, 1995). This predicts that there should be no grammatical subject in Niuean, and it is shown that this prediction is upheld. Among the verbal arguments, agent and patient behave identically for raising and deletion. One argument is distinguished as thematically highest for binding and control, and one case - absolutive - is distinguished as obligatory, but neither the highest argument, nor the one with absolutive case actsas grammatical (EPP) subject.

An earlier version of this work was presented at the Fourth International Conference on Oceanic Languages, Niue Island, in July 1999. For the help of various sorts, I would like to thank Bill Davies, Stan Dubinsky, and Wolfgang Sperlich, as well as Ken Cook, Fakahula Funaki, Robin Hooper, Sita Ioane, Alana Johns, Harry Manamana, Elizabeth Pearce, Milan Rezac, Carolyn Smallwood, Pita Tanaki and anonymous reviewers. All errors are my own. research funding for this work was provided by SSHRC (#410-97-0493).