Paval Caha (Masaryk University): The role of case in adpositional phrases (Czech, Slavic and beyond)

Both in traditional and generative theories (even descriptions), adpositions are usually assumed to mark their complements for case.

In the talk, I show that this view leads to a paradox in understanding the diachronic development of case in Slavic (as reflected by current differences between South vs. East/West Slavic). Reporting on work by Joost Zwarts, we will see the very same paradox in the formal semantic composition of PPs. The alternative I am going to argue for is that case marking applies to a whole PP (composed of an adposition and its complement).