Severing idiosyncratic case from the lexical verb in Uyghur-Chinese code switching

Abstract

This paper discusses case marking in mixed verbs in Uyghur-Chinese code switching, where a lexical verb from Mandarin Chinese is combined with a light verb from Uyghur. In mixed verbs containing a Chinese verb whose Uyghur translational equivalent idiosyncratically selects a dative object, the mixed verb also selects a dative object. We analyze this fact by proposing that dative arguments are introduced by an applicative head (Cuervo 2003) whose presence is required by a little head selecting for certain types of roots along the lines of Merchant (2018).