The direct object relation is a relation of central importance in syntactic theory and so it was an important moment when the nature of that relation was re-thought in a fundamental way in work of the 1990’s. This paper examines some of the issues raised in that re-thinking, by looking closely at the expression of the direct object relation in Irish (infinitival) clauses. It focuses in particular on what is to be learned from an intricate pattern of dialectal, idiolectal, and generational variation which, it is claimed, sheds light on how we should understand `Burzio’s Generalization’, which is
itself a central aspect of theories of objecthood which derive from Government Binding Theory.

Jim McCloskey is Professor of Linguistics at UC Santa Cruz.