Extended Projection Principle in Avestan, Old, and Middle Persian Based on Generative Grammar

Abstract

This research studies the Extended Projection Principle and explains the status of subject construction in the sentences of Avestan, Old, and Middle Persian based on the Generative Grammar. The results show that the Extended Projection Principle feature in those languages is strong and the tense functional head after valuation of the case feature on the noun phrase in the specifier of little verb phrase and receiving the proper valuation for its phi-feature from the same noun phrase, should have a noun phrase in its specifier based on the Extended Projection Principle. In those languages, the subject cannot remain in the specifier of the little verb phrase and should move to upper functional head due to the strength of the Extended Projection Principle. This study shows that the unmarked word order in the embedded sentences of those languages is subject-object-verb order but in the matrix sentences, the constructions can move to other positions based on the scrambling.

Keywords

• minimalist programme
• extended projection principle
• scrambling
• avestan language
• old persian
• middle persian