Festschrifts

Subjects and objects famously show robust asymmetries in their patterning, so much so that those patterns are taken to indicate fundamental geometrical differences in their positions in the derivations of syntactic structures. However, there are clear cases where subjects and objects fail to show this otherwise normative asymmetry. Following work done in Longenbaugh & Polinsky (2018), I propose an analysis of those instances of surprising symmetry that makes them predictable. I argue that terms merge for Case or EPP reasons, the resulting structure need not undergo any labeling. Instances where this lack of labeling fails to intervene between two terms renders them structurally equidistant for further operations and thus provides the venue for symmetry between subjects and objects.