The Perfect Nominative

Abstract

Western Indo-Aryan languages are widely known to host ergative subjects in the perfective. However, there is very little discussion on the optional inclusion of nominative subjects with perfect unergatives. This paper highlights such variation data from two WIALs Punjabi and Gujarati, along with the structural similarities and differences between their transitives and unergatives. It proposes that the optional nominative in the perfective is indicative of a full-phi T head selection, necessitated by case-competition between the two arguments of the unergative at the edge of vP.