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Case System in Pashto

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 Case System in Pashto

Ghani Rahman Nadeem Haider Bukhari

Hazara University, AJKU
Mansehra Muzaffarabad

Abstract

The present study investigates the case system in Pashto language. Case assignment rules
depend on the nature of the predicate, the thematic role of the NP and tense. The study
identifies ergative, nominative, accusative and dative cases in Pashto. It shows that the
single head T1 is checking multiple case features (Bobaljik & Branigan, 2003). The verb
assigns thematic role to the object, which if [+HUM, +DEF] 2 is assigned accusative case
by T in the non-past and absolutive (nominative) otherwise. The indirect object always
appears in the dative. The little v assigns thematic role to the subject and T assigns the
case. The study shows that nominative is the unmarked case in Pashto and ergative case
is both inherent and structural in nature. The subject with the thematic role of
experiencer takes the dative case.

1 Introduction

There are two types of languages in terms of transitive and intransitive constructions; the
nominative-accusative type languages and the ergative-absolutive type languages
(O’Grady, 1997; Khan & Zuhra, 2006). The nominative-accusative type of language is
the language like English where the external arguments of the verbs (of both transitive
and intransitive) appear in the nominative forms. The following examples show the
nominative subjects in English for intransitive and transitive constructions respectively.

1) a) He laughed.
b) He hit her.
c) He was hit (by her).

The subject (he) in the above sentences is in the nominative form, though it has agent role
in the first two examples (1a, 1b) and the patient role in the third example (1c). But the
object (her), in the second example (1b), is in the accusative form having the patient role
(Kemenade, 1987). The following configuration shows the nominative-accusative
construction in English where the subject of both the intransitive and transitive
constructions appears in the same nominative form.

1
T is a tense-marking constituent containing either a tensed auxiliary, or an abstract tense affixTns, or a
non-finite tense particle like infinitival ‘to’ Radford (2009).
2
[+HUM +DEF] means human plus definite.

1
Intransitive S V
(Nominative)

Transitive S V O
(Nominative)

On the other hand, the ergative-absolutive type of language is a language where the
subject of the intransitive and the object of the transitive verbs appear in the same form.
Languages may be purely nominative-accusative or ergative-absolutive languages but
there are languages which can have a combination of both these types of structures.
These languages have split Ergativity. Split ergativity is a combination of nominative-
accusative and ergative-absolutive case marking (O’Grady, 1997). It is manifested in
several ways across languages, e.g., active/stative split, tense split, aspect split, and
empathy hierarchy split (DeLancey, 1981; Dixon, 1994). Split ergativity is a common
feature of the Indo Aryan languages. In Pashto, for example, the subject of the
intransitive in the non-past and the object of the transitive in the past appear in the same
form (nominative). It has the nominative-accusative pattern like English in the non-past
and the ergative-absolutive pattern in the past.

The following configuration shows that the subject of the intransitive in both past and
non-past takes the nominative form and the object of the transitive in the past has the
absolutive form (Khan & Zuhra, 2006).

Intransitive (non-past) S V
(Nominative)

Intransitive (past) S V
(Nominative)

Transitive (non-past) S O V
(Nominative) (Accusative)

Transitive (past) S O V
(Ergative) (Absolutive)

2
The subject of the transitive in past is not nominative but ergative and the following
object is in the nominative (absolutive to be more specific) form in Pashto. The different
case realizations are for agreement purposes in the clause. The ergativity in Indo Aryan
languages is related to several conditions including tense, aspect, mood and the semantic
nature of the verb or the NP. The ergativity, for example, in Gojri, is past tense or
perfective aspect driven (Bukhari, 2009). Pashto like other languages of the region shows
ergativity. But ergativity in Pashto unlike other languages like Urdu, Panjabi, Hinko and
Gojri is not aspect driven but tense driven. Babrakzai (1999) assumes that ergativity in
Pashto is morphosyntactic. The subject appears in the same position having different
nominative and ergative marking. The NP subjects of the intransitive verbs (past or non-
past) take the nominative form but the subjects of the transitive verbs take nominative
form if the tense is non-past and ergative form if the tense is past. The verb in Pashto
agrees only with the nominative (or absolutive) NP and not with ergative NP.

1.1 Subject in Pashto

The subject1 in Pashto can be nominative, ergative and dative depending on the tense, the
nature of the predicate and the thematic role of the subject. The nominative subject
appears in the non-past compatible with both nominative and accusative form of the
following object. The ergative subject appears in the past for the agent performing a
volitional action. If the subject has not the agent thematic role, but experiencer role for
example, it takes dative case. The subjects in Pashto can be in dative and possessive case
depending on the predicates that select them and the degree of volition on the part of the
referent. The function of the nouns cannot be derived from the structural position of the
nouns in Pashto, if the clitics are used instead of the full NPs, these clitics sometimes
occur in the unusual position of the clause. For example, the subject clitic may occur in
the second position of the clause and its full NP counterpart occupies the spec-TP in the
clause2 (Roberts 2000). The following examples show the nominative, ergative and
dative subjects in Pashto.

2) za khat likam
1.SG.NOM letter.SG.ACC write.PRES.IMP.NOM
I am writing a letter.

3) Maa khat likalay day

1.SG.ERG letter.SG.ABS write.NOM.PST.PF be.PRES
I have written a letter.

1
Subject here means ‘syntactic subject’ in line with the notion that there is no single position for subject
across languages and different constructions in the same language (Harley, 1995), Pashto, for example has
the second position clitic functioning as subject in the clause.
2
See examples 30 and 31 for clitics used instead of the full NPs.

3
4) Maa ta nan pata walageda
1.SG.OBL DAT today news realize.PST. PF
I realized today.

5) Da Kiran Hagha khwakh day

POSS Kiran.DAT 3SG.M.NOM like.M.NOM be.PRES
Kiran likes him.

6) Da Kiran Hagha khwakh wo

POSS Kiran.DAT 3SG.M.NOM like.M.NOM be.PST.PF
Kiran liked him.

The above examples show that the subject can be nominative (in non-past) and ergative
(in past) having the thematic role of agent. But when the subject has the thematic role of
experiencer (in both past and non-past), it appears in the dative case.

Different predicates select different forms of the subjects. The psych-predicates for
example, like ‘think’ and ‘like’ select the possessive subject, which is realized by the NP
preceded by the preposition ‘da’ (Tegey and Robson 1996, Roberts 2000). The subject
may also appear as the complement of dative, locative or ablative adposition, appearing
in the oblique case (Babrakzai 1999, Roberts 2000). The following examples from
Babrakzai (1999) show different forms of the subject.

7) Laila dalta pinza kala ter kral

Laila.ERG here five years spend do.PST.PF
Laila spent here five years.

8) Da Lail dalta pinza kala ter shwal1

POSS Laila.OBL here five years spend become.PST.PF
Laila spent here five years.

1
Note the use of transitive auxiliary (kral) with volitional interpretation and the use of intransitive auxiliary
(shawl) with less volitional interpretation. In this sense, the five year duration is a type of object,
representing the time volitionally spent by Laila in the first sentence (7) when used with a transitive
auxiliary. But when it is used when an intransitive auxiliary (8, 9), the same five years duration is not the
same object, giving a less volitional interpretation for Laila in her stay. The ergative subject has the
volitional interpretation, while the possessive case has a non-volitional interpretation taking different types
of auxiliary.

4
9) Pa Laila dalta pinza kala ter shawl
LOC Laila here five years spend become.PST.PF
Laila spent here five years.

The first example above shows the most neutral interpretation where Laila has volition in
her stay, spending five years deliberately and so bears the ergative case (Roberts 2000).

1.2 Direct and indirect objects in Pashto

The Pashto three argument verb1 has a direct object and an indirect object. The indirect
object commonly precedes the direct object. The following examples show the unmarked
order of the indirect objects followed by the direct objects.

10) Mahmud ma la paise rakre

Mahmud.S me.IO money.DO give.PST.PF
Mahmud gave me the money.

11) Za Anwar ta khat likam

1.SG.S Anwar.IO money.DO write.PRES.IMP
I am writing Anwar a letter.

The direct object may also precede the indirect object in marked constructions, if it is
focused and particularly when the grammatical functions are easily realized from the case
marking or from the context of the discourse (Roberts 2000). The following examples
from Roberts show the marked order of the argument of the verbs in Pashto.

12) Khalid Ayeshe ta kitab warkro

Khalid.S Ayesha.IO book.DO give.PST.PF
Khalid gave the book to Ayesha.

13) Khalid kitab Ayeshe ta warkro

Khalid.S book.DO Ayesha.IO give.PST.PF
Khalid gave the book to Ayesha.

14) kitab khalid Ayeshe ta warkro

book.DO khalid Ayesha.IO give.PST.PF
Khalid gave the book to Ayesha.

The direct object in Pashto has the direct form (nominative/absolutive) or oblique form
(accusative), while the indirect object has the oblique form followed by the postposition
‘ta’. Roberts (2000) proposes the following forms of the subject, direct object and
indirect object in Pashto in past and non-past.

1
Three argument verb is a verb that requires three arguments (commonly subject, direct object and indirect
object).

5
 Direct Form Oblique Form

Present Subject: Object Object of Adposition1

Past Object Subject: Object of Adposition

Table 1 showing the direct and oblique forms for subject, object and object of adposition in
Pashto.

Broadly speaking, we have two forms i.e. The NPs can appear in direct or oblique forms.
These direct and oblique forms represent different functions (subject, object, goal etc.)
realized by different cases (nominative/absolutive, ergative, accusative, dative etc.) The
following table shows these forms in detail in terms of the person, number and gender in
the language.

Person Gender Direct Oblique

1SG M/F Za Maa

1PL M/F Mung Mung

2SG M/F Ta Taa

2PL M/F Taso Taso

3SG (Visible2) M Day Da

F Daa De

3PL (Visible) M Dee3 Dee

3SG (Invisible) M Agha Agha

F Agha Aghe

3PL (Invisible) M/F Agho Agho

Table 2 showing the forms of the pronoun adapted from (Roberts 2000, Tegey and Robson 1996,
Khyal 1984).

1
The adposition refers to the preposition, postposition or ambiposition in Pashto (Roberts 2000).
2
Pashto has split in the third person. Those who are present but not addressed are called visible and those
who are not present in the context of the discourse are called invisible by Tegey and Robson (1996). Other
terms used for these are proximant and distant.
3
de has another phonological variant dwi in Pashto. Similarly the 3rd person singular and plural for
invisible have the phonological variants hagha and hagho respectively. Roberts lists day and daa for
accusative masculine and feminine respectively, but they are da and de respectively unlike the direct forms.
Similarly, the accusative feminine for invisible is aghe unlike the direct form agha for both direct and
accusative.

6
2 Cases in Pashto

We have direct and oblique forms to represent ergative, nominative (or absolutive),
accusative, possessive and dative cases in Pashto. The direct case is the unmarked
nominative case and the oblique case may identify accusative (in present) and ergative (in
past), possessive (oblique case preceded by the preposition ‘da’) or the dative (oblique
case followed by a case assigning postposition ‘ta’). These cases are discussed in detail
one by one below.

2.1 Nominative Case

The Pashto nominative case is the unmarked direct case that is why may be called bear
case like Gojri (Bukhari, 2009). The direct case (nominative) is the subject in non-past
and object in the past. So, we have nominative-nominative, nominative-accusative,
ergative-absolutive, dative-nominative and nominative-dative constructions in Pashto
predicates with two arguments. We have nominative cases in the following examples.

15) Za mahay pakhom

1.SG.NOM fish.SG.NOM cook.PRES.IMP.NOM
I am frying the fish.

16) Mahmud gaday chalay

Mahmud.NOM. vehicle.SG.NOM drive.PRES.IMP.NOM
Mahmud is driving the car.

17) za taa waham

1.SG.NOM 2.SG.ACC beat PRES. IMPF.NOM
I am beating you.

18) Ta hagha raanese

2.SG.NOM 3.SG.ACC catch.PRES.IMP.NOM
You are catching him.

19) Kamra Sari Safaa Kawala

Room.SG.F.NOM man.SG.ERG clean.F.NOM do.F.NOM
The man was cleaning the room.

The above examples show that nominative is compatible with both past and non-past.
Both the subject and object can be nominative in non-past; but only the object appears in
nominative (absolutive) form as the subject is ergative in the past. If there are two
nominative cases available in the clause, the verb always agrees with the highest
nominative in the clause following the general condition on the agreement relation.
Similarly, nominative is compatible with both accusative and dative in non-past and with
ergative and dative in the past.

7
2.2 Ergative Case

Pashto Ergative case is structural because of its dependence on the tense. Bobaljik (1993)
assumes that Ergative case in south Asian languages is structural. According to him the
ergative case depends on the perfective aspect; but the ergative case in Pashto depends on
tense only. Ergativity can be seen in the imperfective (past and non-past) unlike other
languages of the region like Gojri and Urdu.

20) Taa waxa kat kawal

2.SG.ERG grass cut do.PST.IMPF
You were cutting the grass.

21) Maa ba waxa kat kawal

1.SG.ERG Fut Grass Cut do.PST.IMPF
I would cut the grass.

As far as the inherent, nonstructural property of the ergative is concerned, Pashto has an
inherent case (Ergative). According to Roberts (2000) the ergative NP has the agent role
in Pashto. The following examples show the agent role of the subject.

22) maa motor chalawo

1.ERG car.ABS drive.PST.IMP.ABS
I was driving a/the car.

23) sari wana owahala

Man.ERG tree.ABS cut.PST.PF.NABS
The man cut a/the tree.

The above examples show the agent role of the ergative subject, but ergativity in Pashto
is not necessarily related to volitional reading on the part of the agent. The following
examples show that ergative can be used with a routine action.

24) Maa Mashum walido

1.SG.ERG child.SG.M.ABS See. PST.PF.M.ABS
I saw the child

25) Mashun Maa Walido

Child. SG.M.ABS 1.SG.ERG See.PST.PF.M.ABS
I saw the child

The above examples show the ergative subject with different positions under the flexible
free word order in Pashto where the subject has not performed any volitional action. This
point is further illustrated by using the inanimate subject bearing ergative case.

8
 26) Gaadi za khug kram
Vehicle.ERG 1.SG.ABS injure do.PST.PF.ABS
The car injured me

27) Za gaadi khug kram

1.SG.ABS Vehicle.SG.ERG injure do.PST.PF.ABS
The car injured me.

28) *Gaaday za khug kram

Vehicle.NOM 1.SG.ABS injure do.PST.PF.ABS
The car injured me

29) *Za gaaday khug kram

1.SG.ABS Vehicle.SG.NOM injure do.PF.SG.ABS
The car injured me.

The above examples show that although the subject is non-human and has no intention to
injure someone but it bears ergative case not a nominative case. Further the tense is past
and so the verb agrees with the object which bears absolutive case and does not agree
with the subject which bears ergative case. The evidence that subject bears ergative case
comes from constructions where the pronominal clitics are used instead of the full NP
subjects, as in the following examples. The full NP subject vehicle (gaaday) is replaced
by the pronominal clitic ‘ye’.

30) Za ye khug kram

1.SG.ABS Cli 3.SG.ERG injure do.PST.PF.ABS
It hit me.

31) *Maa ye khug kram

1.SG.ERG Cli 3.SG.NOM injure do.PST.PF.NOM
It hit me.

The clitic (ye) in the first example refers to 3SG (gaadi) functioning as a subject of the
clause and the preceding nominative (za) is the topical object. So ergative subject
although has agent role but not necessarily conditioned with volitional action, but only
with the subject interpretation in Pashto. The experiencer role is commonly expressed by
dative.

32) Maa la yakh shaway wo

1.SG.OBL DAT cold.M.NOM do.PST.PF.M.NOM be. PST
I had felt cold

9
33) Maa la yakhni shawi wa1
1.SG.OBL DAT cold.F.NOM do.PST.PF.F.NOM be.PST
I had felt cold

34) Da Kiran na zamaa 2 pars wrak sho

POSS kiran DAT 1.POSS purse.NOM lose.NOM do.PST.PF
Kiran lost my purse.

35) Da hagha kiran khwakha da

POSS 3.SG.M kiran.F.NOM like.PRES.F.NOM be.PRES
He likes Kiran.

The above examples show that experiencer role is expressed by dative case and so the
verb in turn agrees with the nominative in the past. So ergativity in Pashto is more
structural than inherent as it is tense and transitivity driven not driven by thematic role of
the subject. But the use of dative case instead of Ergative for experiencer role too shows
it to be inherent to an extent.

2.3 Accusative Case

The accusative case in Pashto appears in the oblique form. It is assigned to direct objects
that are [+HUM+DEF], because the [−HUM−DEF] cannot be accusative. The following
examples show the accusative case in Pashto.

36) Za Mahay pakhom

1.SG.NOM Fish.SG.NOM Cook.PRES.IMP.NOM
I am frying the fish.

37) Za taa waham

1.SG.NOM 2.SG.ACC beat.PRES.IMP.NOM
I am beating you.

38) Za ba taa waham

1.SG.NOM FUT 2.SG.ACC beat.PRES.IMP.NOM
I will beat you.

39) *Za taa wahlay yam

1.SG.NOM 2.SG.ACC beat.PST.PF.NOM be.PRES
I have beaten you.

1
In Yusafzai dialect the word ‘yakh’ has both masculine and feminine forms and so both uses are given
here, and their respective agreement markers on the verb.
2
The possessive pronoun Zamaa (my, mine) can be traced to its original form ‘da maa’, which consists of
the oblique form preceded by the preposition ‘da’ and similarly staa (your, yours) to ‘da taa’ and their
plural counterparts zamung (our, ours) to ‘da mung’, staso (your, yours) to ‘da taso’. But this phonological
simplication does not appear with the third person pronoun like ‘da hagha (his) and its plural counterpart
(Khayal 1984).

10
40) Za taa wahlay yam
1.SG.NOM 2.SG.ERG beat.PST.PF.NOM be.PRES
You have beaten me.

41) maa ta wahlay ye

1.SG.ERG 2.SG.ABS beat.PST.PF.ABS be.PRES
I have beaten you.

The above examples show that accusative is [+HUM+DEF], compatible with nominative
subject only. Further, if the tense is [Past], the object appears as absolutive. Because the
subject in the past is always ergative, and ergative subject is not compatible with
accusative object. The ergative subject is compatible only with absolutive, for agreement
purposes.

The accusative is [+HUM, +DEF] in the non-past, but if it is past or [-HUM, -DEF], it
cannot get accusative, but gets the nominative case. The following examples show the
relevance of both [+HUM, +DEF] and tense.

46) Ta maa wahe

2.SG.NOM 1.SG.ACC beat.PRES.IMPF.NOM
You are beating me.

47) *Ta za wahe

2.SG.NOM 1.SG.NOM beat.PRES.IMPF.NOM
You are beating me.

48) Taa za wahalay wum

2.SG.ERG 1.SG.ABS beat.PST.PF.ABS be.PST
You had beaten me.

49) *Ta maa wahalay wum

2.SG.NOM 1.SG.ACC beat.PST.PF.NOM be.PST
You had beaten me.

The subject in past gets the ergative or dative case, and both ergative and dative always
appear in the oblique form like accusative. The verb does not agree with the oblique
form, and so, two oblique forms are not found in single clause. If the subject is
nominative in non-past and the following direct object is [+HUM, +DEF], it appears in
the accusative.

50) Ta saray raanese

2.SG.NOM man.SG.NOM catch.PRES.IMP.NOM
You are catching a man.

11
51) *Ta sari raanese
2.SG.NOM man.SG.ACC catch.PRES.IMP.NOM
You are catching a man.
52) *Taa sari raaniwo
2.SG.ERG man.SG.ACC catch.PST.IMP
You were catching a man.

53) Taa saray raaniwo

2.SG.ERG man.SG.ABS catch.PST.IMP.ABS
You were catching a man.

54) Ta sari raniwale

2.SG.ABS man.SG.ERG catch.PST.IMP.ABS
The man was catching you.

55) Taa sari raniwal

2.SG.ERG men.PL.ABS catch.PST.IMP.ABS
You were catching men.

The above examples show that the objects above are all human, but they are accusative
when they are definite. The indefinite object cannot be accusative and so is nominative
with either ergative or nominative subject. Further, the non-past also conditions the
appearance of the accusative as subject in the past is commonly the ergative and so both
the oblique forms (of ergative subject and accusative object) are not allowed in a single
clause in the language.

2.4 Dative Case

Pashto has prepositions and postpositions along with ambipositions. The ambipositions
are a combination of a preposition and a postposition. The following ambipositions are
listed by Tegey and Robson (1996) and Roberts (2000).

Prepositions

da 'of (POSS)'

pa 'by means of, with; at (time expressions)'

Postposition

ta 'to (DAT)'

12
Ambipositions1

Pa…...ke ‘in, at’ da….lande ‘under’

Pa…...pase ‘after’ da…pore ‘up to’
Pa…..bande ‘on, to’ da…lande ‘under’

Da….sara ‘with’ da…sakha ‘with’

Da….na ‘from’

The dative postposition ‘ta’ is a case assigner, and so is considered a lexical category like
verb and not a functional category like other prepositions. The postposition as a whole is
considered a lexical category and the preposition a functional one, in order to get a
unified treatment of directionality of heads in the language2 (Roberts 2000:62). The
indirect object always appears in the dative case preceding the direct object that may be
in nominative or accusative. The subject having the experiencer role too, appears in the
dative case.

56) Maa Ahmad ta khat waliko

1.SG.ERG Ahmad.OBL to.DAT letter.ABS write.PST.PF.ABS
I wrote a letter to Ahmad.

57) Mahmud sari ta kanzal wukral

Mahmud.ERG man.OBL to.DAT abuse.ABS do.PST.PF.ABS
Mahmud abused the man.

58) Maa ta nan pata walageda

1.SG.OBL DAT today news realize.PST.PF
I realized today.

59) hagha ta khabar rasi

3.SG.OBL DAT reach.PRES.IMP
He is told about (a single event).

60) hagha ta khabare rasi

3.SG.OBL DAT talks.PL reach.PRES.IMP
He is told about (many events).

In the above examples, the indirect objects and the subjects (with experiencer thematic
role) appear in the dative case. The dative case has the object and subject in the oblique
form and so the verb agrees with the direct object of the verb, not with the dative subject
in past. But in the non-past, the verb takes the default agreement, neither agreeing with
the dative subject nor with the object.

1
The prepositions and postpositions of the ambipositions are adapted according to Yusafzai dialect.
2
The lexical categories are assumed to head final and the functional categories as head initial in Pashto. So
the postposition is considered a lexical category being head final (Roberts 2000).

13
3 Case Assignment Rules

According to Chomsky (1995), the T assigns nominative case to the closest NP which the
T, C-commands, if it does not have a case value. In the non-past, Pashto has the structure
nominative-accusative where the subject is nominative. So T assigns nominative case to
its subject in the non-past which is the unmarked direct case in Pashto. The little v1
assigns the theta role to the subject. If it is agent role in the non-past, it is assigned
nominative case, and if it is agent role in the past, it takes ergative case. But as said
earlier, case is assigned by T not by ASP head unlike Urdu, Hindi and Gojri because
ergativity in Pashto is not aspect driven but tense driven. The accusative case in the non-
past and absolutive in past are not assigned by little v but by T as agreement for both
subject and object is tense driven and not aspect driven. So instead of using (+IMPF) for
Pashto like Gojri is not required but instead we will use (±Past) for Pashto case
assignment. When the T has the value (non-past), the NP in spec vP is assigned
nominative and when [past], then it is assigned ergative case 2. The nominative NP values
the phi-features on the T head as the non-nominative NP cannot agree with the verb in
Pashto. The nominative and ergative cases are assigned in the following way

CP

C TP
[EPP]
Sub T΄

T Aspp
[Nom]
[EPP] vP Asp

sub v΄
[U case]
VP v

Obj V

1
The little v is the agent role assigning head.
2
it does not indicate the Pashto unergative verbs that are intransitive but take ergative case as against the
usual nominative case for past intransitive verb e.g
Maa ba Jaral
1.SG.ERG fut weap.PAST.IMP
I would weap

14
The verb merges with the object and form VP. The object can be [±HUM±DEF]. If the
object is [+HUM+DEF], it can be assigned accusative case, but the tense specifies this
possibility further. The VP then merges with the little v to form v΄. This v΄ merges with
the subject to project vP. The little v here assigns the theta role to the external argument
(subject). If the theta role assigned by the little v is agent, the subject might be assigned
either nominative or ergative case because both may be the subject. If the theta role is the
experiencer role, the subject may be assigned dative case. The thematic role assigned
here, specifies the form of the subject in terms of ergative and dative. But dative subject
is compatible with both past and non-past, while ergative only occurs in the past. So, the
inherent property of the subject specifies the form of the subject. The vP merges with Asp
to project AspP. The AspP may have the (±PERF) features but as the nominative and
ergative case marking is not aspect driven because the past imperfective for example bear
ergative case, so, the conditions for case assignment are not met here and the derivation
proceeds further. The AspP merges with T, which has the features [+past]. If the verb is
in the past and the NP has agent role, it is assigned ergative case. But if it is [non-past]
and the NP is agentive, it is assigned nominative case. And if the NP has the experiencer
role and either it is past or non-past, it is assigned dative case. So the subject gets its
[case] feature valued from T either ergative, nominative or dative.

4 Conclusion

The study concludes that case system in Pashto depends on the nature of the predicate,
the thematic role of the NP and tense. The nominative, ergative, accusative, possessive
and dative cases are identified in Pashto. The nominative is the unmarked case for both
subject and object. The subject appears in the nominative in non-past and object as
nominative (absolutive) in the past. The subject with the thematic role of agent in the past
appears in the ergative. But if the subject has the thematic role of experiencer, it appears
in the dative case. If the object is [+HUM, +DEF] in the non-past, it get accusative. The
indirect object always appears in the dative case. The single head T is checking multiple
case features (Bobaljik & Branigan, 2003). The verbs assigns thematic role to the object,
which if [+HUM, +DEF] is assigned accusative case by T in the non-past and absolutive
(nominative) otherwise. The little v assigns thematic role to the subject and T assigns the
case.

15
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