 This e-lecture discusses some of the consequences of case syncretism with regard to the choice of the main functional elements of claw structure and with regard to external syntactic operations. This raises several important questions. For example, one question is simply what is case syncretism? Another one, how are subjects and objects affected and what about the development of the word order of English? And finally, what are claws external effects and what have they got to do with case syncretism? Let us start with case syncretism in general. Now this picture over here illustrates what case syncretism is about. Case syncretism or the merger of cases occurs if formally morphologically distinct cases or case forms merged. Here is an example from Old English. Now Old English was a type of English that was used between 600 and 1100 after Christ where most nouns exhibited several distinct case forms. Let us concentrate on the nominative and the accusative case because these are the two case forms that are responsible for the differentiation between subjects and objects. In the singular of the feminine noun talu, which means tail in present-day English, we can clearly find two distinct case forms, seotalu and thartale. In the plural, however, this distinction was already absent. So here we already have a merger of the two cases. Today and during the development of Old English to present-day English, all nouns merged their direct cases so that there is no longer any formal distinction between subjects and objects. Now what are the consequences of this case syncretism? Well, one essential consequence can be referred to as the fixing of word order. The word order of present-day English is SVO and it developed from a relatively free word order of former periods for example Old English. The mechanisms of underlying this drift from one word order pattern to another can nicely be illustrated with an example from German which still uses case distinctions. Here is a short sentence. Der Mann sieht den Hund. The man sees the dog. Even though the nouns occur in their base forms, Mann is the base form, Hund is the base form, the articles correspond with particular cases. Der is the case form, is the article for the nominative case and den clearly marks the accusative case. Well, this allows us to change the word order without running into problems at all. So we can now transform the sentence into den Hund sieht der Mann. Of course the emphasis is now, the meaning is slightly different but the sentence is fully grammatical and we have just swapped the object with the subject. But what about nouns that have no articles anymore? Now here you see the sentence underneath Paul sieht Maria. Paul sees Mary. Now subjects and objects are solely determined by their position. If we now swap subject and object and generate a sentence Maria sieht Paul, then clearly the loss of formal case distinctions in such words has led to a fixing of word order. Now the subject is always the first element and the object is the second. So the loss of formal case distinctions leads to a fixing of word order. By the way, many Germans use articles even before nouns so they would say something like der Paul sieht die Maria, only in speech though, probably to make the interpretation unambiguous. However, this is not a property of standard German. A further consequence of case syncretism has already been discussed in our e-lecture subjects in present day English so we can pass this point relatively quickly. Now it concerns the relative freedom of the choice of subjects in present day English as a consequence of case syncretism. In English we have a large number of non-agentive subjects today. Well, here are the construction we discussed in this e-lecture subjects in present day English. For example, subjects that occur with or non-agentive subjects that occur with causative verbs or subjects that occur in middle constructions, in constructions with obligatory adverbials or subjects in ergative constructions. All these subjects are non-agentive subjects and they hardly occur in languages with an elaborate case system. Another consequence of case syncretism is the choice of objects. Since there is no formal difference between different case forms in present day English anymore the class of direct objects is now larger than in many other languages. Consider the following sentences. I saw the man and I helped the man. Now in both cases we have a direct object. There is no formal distinction between the type of object. In German, by contrast, we have ich sah den Mann. I saw the man and ich helf dem Mann. I helped the man. Now here we have two different objects that are case marked by means of their preceding article. Now this choice of objects depending on different cases has an interesting consequence for passivization. Whereas in English, both sentences can be passivized in such a way that the objects can become the subjects of corresponding passives. So here are the former objects. He was seen by me. He was helped by me. This is not possible in German for both objects but just for sentences that have accusative objects. So he, in this case, is the former accusative object of ich sah ihn, ich sah den Mann. Whereas ich helf dem Mann, cannot be transformed into a passive. So here we have the former dative object and that cannot come out as a subject of a corresponding passive. Finally, let's look at clause external effects. Now clause external effects concern all those syntactic operations that move elements, in particular noun phrases, across clause boundaries. Illustrated here by these operations where a subject could be moved out of its clause, an object could be moved out of its clause and so on. Two types of operations are of interest here, raising and gapping. Let us start with raising. Now raising is a specific type of movement operation that raises a noun phrase. So this could be a noun phrase here. From a lower position, from an embedded sentence to a higher one. My example I'm going to use is I believe my friend to be ill. Now really the sentence has the following logical structure. I believe and then we have a subordinate clause where an element, my friend, has been raised into this position. Because the sentence really logically means I believe my friend is ill. So we have a case of subject. This is the former subject position here to an object position. So a typical case of subject to object raising. This type of raising is problematic in languages with an elaborate case system. So German does not allow such constructions. Look at gapping, the second type of clause external operation. That is structures from which elements have been removed, thus leaving behind a gap. So this is a sort of system where we have a operation. We have let's say two clauses coordinated by and and from the second or the first depending on the language and the content. Some elements have been deleted. The example I'm going to use is I saw her and helped her where this element here, her, can be deleted. I saw and helped her. Well this example is impossible in German. For a very simple reason, the two verbs see and help require different types of objects. The first object would be marked in the accusative case. And the second object would be marked in the dative case. And so the gapping rule does not apply anymore because we do not have identity between the two noun phrases within the sentence. Well more examples of this type are given in the VLC virtual session clause external operations in present day English. But the main impact should be clear already. Languages with more elaborate case systems are far more restricted as far as clause external operations are concerned or formulated the other way around since the choice of subjects and objects in present day English is less restricted than in former periods of English clause external operations are more productive in PDE. Let's summarize. In this e-lecture we have illustrated that case syncretism has affected the English language to a considerable extent. The word order has been fixed to SVO. Subjects and objects constitute a larger class than ever before. And clause external operations such as raising and gapping are very productive. So wherever you are and whatever language is your mother tongue, it will be a good idea if you try to find out whether your language supports the arguments that were discussed in this e-lecture.