The Many Cases of Non-finite Subjects the Challenge of “dominant” Participles

In this paper we discuss the so-called “dominant” construction found with Latin participles. We argue that this construction instantiates a rare type of subject case assignment where the case of the participle’s subject depends on the grammatical function of the participial clause. To capture this in the LFG formalism, we argue for a “copy theory” of agreement, where the information from the agreeing features are present in both the controller and the target of agreement: this theory enables us to offer a uniform account of agreement across all uses of participles. We also discuss the implications for LFG’s theory of subject case assignment, in particular the constructive case approach.