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Lecture 12. Verbal Inflections (Agreement)

The document discusses verbal inflections and agreement in morphology, focusing on how grammatical items co-vary based on features of other items. It outlines various types of agreement, including subject-verb, object-verb, and possessor agreement, and highlights differences in agreement across languages. Additionally, it introduces concepts such as complementizer agreement and dependent verb forms used in different clause types.

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17 views21 pages

Lecture 12. Verbal Inflections (Agreement)

The document discusses verbal inflections and agreement in morphology, focusing on how grammatical items co-vary based on features of other items. It outlines various types of agreement, including subject-verb, object-verb, and possessor agreement, and highlights differences in agreement across languages. Additionally, it introduces concepts such as complementizer agreement and dependent verb forms used in different clause types.

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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Linguistics LS 131

Basic Issues in Morphology

27 September 2024
Verbal Inflections II: Agreement

Shruti Sircar
Professor
Department of Linguistics & Contemporary English
School of Language Sciences
EFL University
shrutisircar@gmail.com
9885045387
1
Inflectional morphology

Nouns Verbs
• Gender • Tense
• Number • Aspect
• Person (in pronouns) • Mood
• Case • Agreement
person
number
Adjectives gender
• Number • Negative
• Gender • Converbs/
• Superlative participles/infinitives
• comparative
Agreement

Agreement
when a grammatical item co-varies based on features of
another grammatical item (Φ-features).

All kinds of agreement is found in natural language: (Giusti)


• Subject-verb agreement ( N, G, P)
• Complementizer - VP agreement. (P, N, G)
Concord
• object-verb agreement (N, G)
• Subject-object agreement
• Possessor -possessum agreement (N, G)
• Adjective -noun agreement (N, G)
• Preposition-prepositional object agreement (N, G)
Agreement

Agreement target
the grammatical item (verb, preposition, etc.) that varies in
an agreement relation.

Agreement controller
the grammatical item whose grammatical features
determine the morphology on the agreement target.

The rabbit love-s his whiskers.

Informally, we can say that the controller gives (copies) of its


features to target.
Subject-object agreement

What defines a subject?


• different θ-roles: agent, patient/theme(in passives),
experiencer, recipient/ source (in passives of ditransitives),
...

• subject is DP in [Spec,IP] (or NP daughter of IP).

Empirically, this is a very commonly found trait in languages,


though:
• not all languages identify the same features of the target on
the controller.
not all languages require all their verbs to agree in the
same way.
Maltese
Maltese
Object-verb agreement

Sometimes a non- subject argument controls agreement.

Two kinds of internal argument:


• Direct objects (patients, themes, etc.)
• Indirect objects/ oblique objects (goals, sources, beneficiaries,
etc.) .

He sent a package to the Minister.


He sent the Minister a package.
He escaped from the prison.
The dog walked home.
Agreement in Hindi

Subject-verb agreement

Object verb agreement


Agreement in Hindi

Subject-verb agreement

With ergative subjects,


we do not have
subject-verb agreement,
Object verb agreement but object-verb
agreement
Possessor agreement

John’s hat = possessor-possessum


Possessor agreement
when features of the possessor appear elsewhere on the
possessum.
• [John-GEN hat] NOM
Complementizer agreement

Complementizer
word which introduces an entire clause
(usually only found in embedded clauses).
{that, whether, if, because, ... }

Complementizer agreement
when a complementizer shows morphology
controlled by the features of a DP.
Complementizer agreement
Modifier-noun agreement

raʔiis-ɑ-n dʒɑdiid-ɑ-n
president.M.SG-ACC-INDEF new.M.SG-ACC-INDEF
‘a new (male) president’

kɑɑnɑ ʔɑr-rɑdʒul-u mɑriidʕ-ɑ-n


COP.PST DEF-man.M.SG-NOM sick.M.SG-ACC-INDEF
‘The man was sick.’

Attributive adjectives : agree in number, gender, case, and


definiteness
Predicative adjectives: number and gender
Marwari
Dependent verb forms

Languages have special verb forms that are confined to


dependent clauses.
• verb forms marking relative clauses are called participles
• verb forms marking adverbial clauses are called converbs
and
• verb forms marking complement clauses are called
infinitives or masdars
Dependent verb forms
Quiz 1

• Does your language have such participles, or converbs?


• Identify as many as you can.

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