The existence and nature of abstract Case has been debated in recent years
(McFadden 2004, Landau 2006, Markman 2009), particularly in languages that
show no morphological case marking (Diercks 2012, Sheehan & van der Wal
2016). Using data from original fieldwork, I argue that Nukuoro
(Polynesian-Outlier) instantiates abstract ergative Case without
morphological case or agreement. Nukuoro shows a range of syntactic
phenomena indicative of abstract Case, including object shift and pseudo
noun incorporation (e.g., Massam 2001), syntactic ergativity in
A'-movement, and alternative licensing in tenseless clauses. This pattern
provides support for modern theories of Case (Legate 2008), which cleave
the assignment of abstract Case from its realization in the morphology;
additionally, this pattern differs from other documented examples of
unrealized abstract Case by having an ergative alignment, rather than a
nominative one (Halpert 2016, Sheehan \& van der Wal 2016).
