Re: a case-free language?

From:    Rodlox <Rodlox@...>
> are there any languages (natural or conlang) that lack (or very nearly
> lack) cases?
I suppose the answer to this depends on one's theoretical perspective.
Some theories of syntax (notably Government-Binding/Principles&Parameters/
Minimalism) posit structural "case", which is assigned by lexical items,
in some forms of the theory, and is used to drive certain syntactic
processes (such as movement). These theorists hold that this "case" may
be phonologically null, and thus noun phrases may in principle look
superficially the same. Most other theorists say this is nonsense, that
case is only being invoked as a rather ad hoc principle as a bulwark to
hold up other aspects of their theories, such as movement, which are
themselves rather circumspect.

But, just pretheoretically, there are many languages which lack any
kind of overt case. Vietnamese and Mandarin are well-known examples.

 =========================================================================
Thomas Wier	       "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637