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Our study explores why children are prone to assign a wider range of interpretations to sentences with distributive universal quantifiers each and every than adults. Musolino (2009) proposed that children are more permissive than adults because they are prone to assign quantifier spreading interpretations to universally quantified sentences. Our results support the alternative hypothesis that children are more permissive because they are prone to assign cumulative interpretations to universally quantified sentences in a wider range of contexts than adults. Our results reveal that both children and adults assign cumulative interpretations to sentences with universally quantified objects ( Three cowboys are pulling every horse ), but children also tend to assign cumulative interpretations to sentences with universally quantified subjects ( Every cowboy is pulling two horses ). We show that children perform similarly with sentences with universally quantified NPs and sentences with numerical NPs ( Three cowboys are pulling two horses ). We argue that children are more permissive than adults because they are less likely than adults to perceive singular subject-verb agreement as a cue to distributive interpretation. We present a formal semantic model to explain our findings and discuss the implications of our model for recent acquisition research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ordinary competent language speakers experience difficulty in paraphrasing words such as ‘the’, ‘but’ or ‘however’ as compared to words such as ‘chair’ or ‘run’. The difficulty experienced in the first case is sometimes called descriptive ineffability. In recent debates about meaning types in pragmatics and philosophy of language, descriptive ineffability has been used as a test for the presence of expressive (as opposed to descriptive) meaning, or procedural (as opposed to conceptual) meaning. However, the notion of descriptive ineffability is controversial and in need of further clarification. In this paper I provide two arguments that descriptive ineffability is not a good criterion for distinguishing between types of meaning. First, I show that the effability/ineffability divide does not line up with distinctions in meaning type. Second, I argue that several effability/ineffability patterns are best explained not by the meaning types of words but by differences in the range and scope of speakers’ metalinguistic ability to paraphrase, as it is shaped by experience throughout their lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the results of a study investigating the production of gender and number agreement between head noun and predicative adjective in Spanish using an elicited-error paradigm with preambles that included either Control or Raising verbs. In order to identify if the subjects of the infinitivals selected by these two verb types are syntactically identical (Movement Theory of Control) or distinct (Theory of Control by PRO or anaphora), the following features in the preambles were manipulated: gender of head noun (Feminine–Masculine), gender and number (Singular–Plural) of local noun, and type of verb (Control–Raising). We analyzed the agreement errors and omissions patterns, as well as response times in the production of the target adjective. The error rate was not different across the two syntactic conditions, but the two verb classes were associated with significantly different number of target omissions. Furthermore, omissions in the Control condition were specifically associated with feminine agreeing adjectives. This pattern was also reflected in the adjective production latency. Taken together, these results undermine the Control by Movement explanation and argue for a Control by PRO analysis of Control constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Selecting specified over underspecified forms requires real-time inferences. • Real-time inferences flesh out underspecified contents. • Inferences in computing sentence meaning and form selection compete for resources. • The competition for resources is in evidence when processing capacity is reduced. • Competition is salient in L2 learners and reduced capacity processing in natives. This study examines native and non-native retrieval of the third person number agreement morphology for the French future tense (e.g. mangera (eat - fut.3ps.sg) vs. mangeront (eat - fut.3ps.pl), 'will eat'), in the light of subset and superset-based late-insertion models. We present evidence for the coactivation of subset vocabulary items where selecting the more specified item -ont (3ps.pl) in third-person plural agreement requires eliminating the less specified item –a (3ps.sg). The lack of plural specification for –a is interpreted as [-Plural] by a real-time inference on a < -ont, -a > information scale defined by [Number: Ø/Plural]. Using picture classification time differences during a grammaticality judgment task, we argue that i.) subset vocabulary items are activated and that ii.) domain-general inferencing enables form selection in multiple activations. Hence, picture-probes related to the ongoing interpretation of the sentence presented immediately after a mismatching singular verb form (subset item error) took longer to classify in L1-English L2-French learners and in French natives tested with a speeded task. This interaction of form with meaning construction justifies subset access triggering domain-general inference-based selection in multiple activations over a superset-based model of vocabulary item activation or information-load and frequency-based approaches. This model provides an understanding of temporary irretrievability in L2 acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Agreement attraction occurs in comprehension in Spanish (eye tracking). [•] Rich morphology accounts for lack of semantic effects. [•] Comprehension dilutes semantic effects more. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights: [•] We measured gaze occurring with pronouns for American Sign Language (ASL) signers. [•] Results show ASL does not use the eyes to mark person. [•] Findings support claims that agreement is grammatically, not gesturally driven. [•] Further that there is no second/third person distinction for sign. [•] Conclude universal differences between signed and spoken languages for person marking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This article surveys some leading generative ideas about agreement and case, and connects them to several universal and near-universal observations noted by typologists. It begins with the familiar fact that adjectives can agree with noun phrases in number and gender but not in person, whereas verbs can agree in person as well—depending on the structure. From there it moves to the fact that verbs typically do not agree with their objects unless they also agree with their subjects. Several possible types of agreement with objects are then identified and distinguished, and some substantive similarities between object agreement and subject agreement are noted. It is shown that both subject agreement and object agreement are sensitive to the case morphology borne by the noun phrase (dative versus accusative, ergative versus nominative) in some languages but not in others, and the implications of this result for the assignment of case are considered. In all, the discussion covers four known linguistic universals in the area of agreement and case, and proposes three new ones. These are all explained in terms of two universal properties of the agreement relation and one parameter. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We review and discuss some issues to do with the relation between morphology and syntax which have played a prominent part in generative linguistic research in the past three decades. Focusing on verbal inflection, we first discuss the relation between inflection and verb placement, with special attention given to verb-initial languages. We then discuss the relation between pro-drop and agreement, where we articulate a partly new understanding of Huang''s (1989) generalization that pro-drop is characteristic of languages with rich agreement and languages with no agreement, but not languages that are in-between. We then present and discuss the Mirror Principle, one of the most significant findings in recent linguistic research. We pay special attention to the Mirror Principle as it applies in head-final languages, in the context of a model adopting Kayne''s (1994) Linear Correspondence Axiom. The idea is to show how fairly complex aspects of clausal syntax, including word order and the possibility of phonetically silent arguments of a predicate, may be correlated with readily observable and, in themselves, rather simple properties of verbal inflection, and to show how, given a restrictive theory of Universal Grammar, this follows from the fact that inflections are syntactic categories, albeit realized as parts of words. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The analysis presented in this paper provides a development of the idea that subject agreement markers in Bantu can be analysed as pronouns. With reference to Swahili and Herero, it is shown that the interpretation of subject markers is dependent on the context in which they are found and that it is, similar to ordinary pronouns, constrained by locality, directionality and class features. The relevant context includes both the wider, pragmatic context as well as the relation between overt subject and agreeing subject marker, and thus includes word-order variation between subject–verb and verb–subject structures. Lexical restrictions on the interpretation of subject markers interact with different ways in which logical subjects can be syntactically related to the verb, expressing different information structure relations such as topic and focus. By employing the Dynamic Syntax notion of incremental growth of semantic representations, a formal analysis is developed which shows how the interaction between context, word-order and lexical information from agreement markers results in the step-by-step development of the context-specific interpretation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper examines two previously undiscussed locative inversion constructions in Lubukusu (Bantu) with respect to both their theoretical and typological significance. Repeated agreement locative inversion has two distinct verbal affixes which agree with the fronted locative phrase, whereas the verb agrees with both the fronted locative and the postverbal subject in disjoint agreement locative inversion. Each critical aspect of these constructions is explored – the nature of the locative clitic that appears, the position of the fronted locative phrase, and the position of the postverbal subject – concluding that the two locative inversion constructions have very different structural properties. These different structures are then used to examine the apparently ‘downward’ agreement pattern in disjoint agreement locative inversion in light of the Upward Agreement Hypothesis, that is, the claim by Baker [The syntax of agreement and concord, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge; among others] that heads in Bantu languages agree with structurally higher phrases. The analyses proposed offer insight into the place of Lubukusu locative inversion among other (Bantu) locative inversion constructions, as well as giving evidence that the apparent counter-evidence of disjoint agreement locative inversion in the end is nonetheless amenable to an ‘upward’ agreement analysis, further supporting the Upward Agreement Hypothesis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Many Bantu languages exhibit A-movements and patterns of iterating agreement that are disallowed in Indo-European languages. In Minimalist theory, both agreement and movement are constrained by an Activity requirement stipulating that goals in Agree relations must have an unchecked uninterpretable feature. For Indo-European DPs the sole Activity feature in A-relations is Case; but I argue here that grammatical gender, a component of Bantu noun class, is uninterpretable too. Case and nominal gender differ in that the latter enters the syntax already valued. Assuming goal deactivation is a consequence of syntactic valuation, we derive the result that gender is an infinitely reusable Activity feature. Adjunction of Bantu N to D makes gender visible to all clause-level probes, and Bantu DPs are therefore able to A-move more freely than their Indo-European counterparts and to value iterating agreement. The proposals provide a unitary explanation for the existence in Bantu of Subject Object Reversal, locative inversion controlling subject agreement, hyper-raising, concord, left-edge agreement with operators, and multiple subject agreement. The syntax of gender argues that uninterpretable features need not be deleted from a syntactic object bound for the Conceptual–Intentional interface. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Despite exhibiting a high degree of uniformity, Bantu languages display a surprising amount of variation in extraction contexts, particularly with regard to agreement patterns. This paper examines this variation, focusing first on Bantu OVS relatives and topicalization structures in which the raised operator triggers morphological subject agreement on the verb. After critiquing accounts by and others, this paper proposes an analysis of OVS structures in which the establishment of agreement relations is delayed until the end of the derivation. I then take this account of OVS as the basis for discussing variation in the agreement properties of operator constructions across Bantu languages. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In many Bantu languages, not only the grammatical agreement of verbs, but also SVO word order, has a role in establishing grammatical relations. In Matengo, however, the main function of word order is to code information structure, rather than grammatical relations. This paper discusses the possible positioning of each element within sentences in Matengo, and shows that word order is largely determined by information structure, especially topicality. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper is concerned with a construction in which multiple foci are found in front of the inflected verb, contrary to the accepted view on focussing in Hungarian, which allows for only one constituent there. Since earlier proposals for multiple wh-question constructions or multiple (postverbal) foci cannot be extended to cover the new cases, a new analysis is put forward based upon the assumption that Neg does not attract Tense and that wh-phrases must be licensed by Comp. The phenomenon of negative concord is invoked to provide independent evidence for the analyses presented. The interaction of negated universal quantifiers with negative concord quantifiers and focus is also examined in order to argue for the checking mechanisms at work in this language. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This article shows that once it is accepted that a single morpheme can lexicalize a “span” of heads rather than a single head, it becomes possible to establish the complex structures underlying noun class prefixes and agreement markers in Nguni (Xhosa, Zulu, Ndebele and Swati) in a mechanical way, based on the distributional properties of the morphemes involved. These structures together with general principles of lexicalization turn out to make an accurate prediction about the syncretism patterns observed among the different types of agreement markers (concords), and we are also led to conclude that the size of nominal projections must be a locus of parametric variation, by comparing Nguni to other Southern Bamtu languages. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper revives the sociolinguistic notion of ‘variable rules’ (Labov, 1969; Cedergren and Sankoff, 1974; Guy, 1991) as a specific and restricted mechanism within the theoretical framework of Distributed Morphology (Halle and Marantz, 1993; Embick and Noyer, 2007). We propose that intra-individual paradigm ‘leveling’ variation (or, variable syncretism), can be effectively modeled as resulting from post-syntactic feature deletion rules that apply variably. In other words, variable rules enact a structural change only probabilistically, rather than deterministically, when their structural description is met. By hypothesis, morphological ‘Impoverishment’ operations (Bonet, 1991; Halle, 1997; Noyer, 1998) are induced by the inherent and universal markedness of particular morphosyntactic features or their combination (Greenberg, 1966; Croft, 2003). We examine markedness-driven variable Impoverishment through case studies of three English varieties: be-leveling in Monmouthshire (Orton, 1962–1971) induced by marked [+author], was-leveling in Buckie (Adger and Smith, 2005; Adger, 2006) induced by marked [+participant], and weren’t- and ain’t-leveling on Smith Island (Wolfram and Schilling-Estes, 2003; Mittelstaedt, 2006) induced by marked [+negation]. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper has two main theoretical aims: (i) to argue for the utility of a lexical, feature-based, approach to intra-dialectal and inter-dialectal language variation, confirming and extending suggestion that language variation is ultimately a matter of the properties of the lexicon of functional categories; (ii) to argue that the variability found in an individual speaker is two-dimensional: it may involve varying featural specification of functional categories and/or underspecification in the mapping between these categories and morphological forms, the former modeling the kind of variation usually thought of as ‘parametric’ and the latter modeling the kind of variation usually captured by the notion of linguistic variable . We thus offer a unified model of the grammatical representations that underlie language variation of both types. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper we argue that variation in subject-verb agreement in Belfast English and Appalachian English bears on a number of issues that are relevant to current syntactic theory, including clause structure and subject positions, case, the syntax of negative polarity items and negative concord and the structure of the DP. We show that while the nature of the subject plays a role in determining subject-verb agreement in the two varieties (in different ways), subject position is the overt structural manifestation of the differing properties of the subject, independent of which properties are relevant in the variety in question. Our proposal on subject positions, which goes beyond what proposed for Belfast English, is able to capture clusters of properties not discussed by Henry, and thus more fully accounts for the range of micro-parametric variation we find. This paper thus provides support for a configurational approach to subject-verb agreement. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper reports four experiments that test whether persistent problems of second-language (L2) learners with L2 inflection, such as case or subject–verb agreement, are the consequence of age-related grammatical impairment of L2 morphosyntax or differences in processing efficiency between natives and non-natives. Fifty-nine L1 English, Dutch and Russian advanced to near-native L2 speakers of German were tested on their ultimate attainment of case marking, subject–verb agreement and gender concord. Different off-line and on-line tasks were employed. Cross-linguistic and cross-experiment comparisons of native and non-native performance show that native-like ultimate attainment of L2 inflection is possible for postpubescent learners in L2 grammar and L2 processing. Non-target-like L2 inflection is systematically related to L1 transfer and limitations in L2 processing efficiency. In conjunction, these findings argue against a critical period for morphosyntax in L2 acquisition; rather, they suggest that non-native and native grammars and processing systems are fundamentally identical, with L2 systems being computationally less efficient due to L1 influence. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The paper argues that true or grammatical resumption arises through the generalisation of intrusive resumption, a resumptive strategy available in most grammars as a last resort device to overcome processing complexity. Intrusive resumptive structures involve mixed chains, specified for movement, thus, incurring processing costs associated with movement, but in which the involvement of a pronominal, providing an argument locally, gives rise to an anaphoric resolution of the dependency. Generalising the resumptive strategy involves shifting from such mixed chains to chains where the movement option is cancelled altogether and, complexity associated with movement is dispensed with. Technically, this amounts to dispensing with the Op feature of C. The hypothesis immediately explains why variation in resumption is associated with C rather than the pronominal. A crucial trigger in this process is the presence of rich agreement in a grammar in two areas: (i) the association of C of relative clauses with nominal features that enter in agreement relations with the relativised element and (ii) the existence of pronominal clitics that can be (re-)analysed as agreement features on verbal forms. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper develops a new perspective on the question of what type of verb movement the modern Celtic languages display, V to I movement or V to C movement. Under the standard assumption that the subject remains relatively low in these languages compared to Germanic languages, this category fails to be a diagnostic, since both verb movement operations cross the subject. The analysis presented here starts from the theory of verb movement developed in Koeneman (2000), which argues that the verb does not move to prefabricated functional head positions but moves in order to project one or more of its functional features (tense and agreement). It is shown how this theory offers a better understanding of verb movement (parameters) than mainstream approaches. After developing a concrete proposal for verb movement variation in Germanic, the paper tries to extend this analysis to the Celtic languages, so that a uniform analysis of verb movement (variation) ensues. The main conclusion is that it is very unlikely that Celtic languages have a verb movement operation involving an agreement projection. They are better analyzed as having a verb movement operation that projects tense features. The result is that the nature of verb movement in Germanic and Celtic is basically the same. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Jouitteau''s 2005 generalization that absolute V1 is not allowed introduces an interesting perspective on the possible structural relatedness between V1 and V2 grammatical systems. This article examines whether Celtic and Germanic display additional convergences beyond those that involve the left periphery. The verb–subject order in finite declarative clauses is one of them. It is shown that, once certain assumptions are made concerning the syntax of formal features (they “fission” when unsatisfied) and the featural endowment of Tense (the phi-requirement should carefully be distinguished from the EPP-requirement), some of the characteristics of the Celtic and Germanic peripheries straightforwardly follow from the properties of the inflectional domains. As far as the latter are concerned, three dimensions of variation are isolated, which decisively contribute to shaping clausal structure and determining word order: the inflectional richness of verbal forms, whether tense has a featural/morphemic representation within vP, and the presence/absence/optionality of T''s [EPP]. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article reformulates analysis of Locative Inversion in more current terms, while extending the empirical scope of their proposal to a larger set of constructions involving displacement of small clause predicates and VPs. The new proposal will stress H&M's basic claim that Locative Inversion in examples like Down the hill rolled the baby carriage is possible due to the fact that the predicative PP and the subject DP are in an agreement relation. We will adopt as an axiom that this agreement relation holds cross-categorially and resembles object agreement in that it involves agreement in φ-features. If so, basic insight can be rephrased in more current terms as the following hypothesis: if A and B agree in φ-features, both A and B can be the goal of some higher head H with unvalued φ-features, and, consequently, be a candidate for internal merge with H. From this it follows as a corollary that in principle predicates may target any checking position that is normally targeted by the subject of the predicative phrase. This article will test this prediction by considering certain instances of predicate inversion in English, Dutch and Hungarian. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Agreement lies at the heart of sentence structure in that it usually codifies the formal link between the subject and the predicate. In a way, although not strictly necessary, agreement tends to be what signals that a clause has been created. However, linguists and psycholinguists disagree as to whether this core process is essentially a semantic or a syntactic phenomenon, and there is evidence that suggests that it may be both things at the same time. suggests that in morphologically impoverished languages like English, low frequency of agreement operations makes for a weak morphosyntactic component that is unable to keep semantic interference at bay, at least in production (where meaning comes first). In his completion study, he manages to show that the strong morphosyntactic defences of German do seem to encapsulate number agreement from non-formal forces. In this paper, I examine the psycholinguistic literature on the processing of agreement in English and Spanish in search of fine-grained evidence for encapsulation in all the relevant domains (NP, clausal, supra-clausal). The different grounding of the features of gender and number is also analysed and evidence for their differentiality in the first cycles of processing is ruled out. In general, Berg's hypothesis is confirmed by existing processing measures (Spanish patterns like German due to its rich morphology), but the fine picture of agreement operations in English and Spanish is also sensitive to the different domains tested and to whether production or comprehension is taken into account. Finally, it is argued that gender classes and the agreement systems based on them constitute a major generative device when constructing the clause. This is because gender is less semantically grounded than number and therefore easier to recruit for phrasal packaging, as this merely requires the co-variance of form. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We show that in Tegelen Dutch, a Dutch dialect, a conjunction or disjunction can agree with a subject in the subsequent conjunct. We dub this instance of agreement Boolean Agreement. The agreement is restricted in the following ways: (i) the coordination must be interpreted Boolean and (ii) the coordination must be embedded. We analyze the agreement on the disjunction or conjunction as an instance of so-called Complementizer Agreement, a phenomenon which is independently attested in this dialect. We show that our analysis can be extended to Boolean Agreement in gapping configurations and comparative clauses. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Breton φ-agreement is characterized by the Complementarity Effect, which allows pro-dropped but not lexical DPs to control φ-agreement. We contrast verbal and prepositional systems: a lexical DP co-occurs with the root form of a preposition, but with a 3rd.sg. (frozen agreement) form of a verb. We argue that frozen agreement arises through φ-relativized locality: the Breton vP independently shows nominal properties, and thus intervenes for agreement. The φ-probe of T Agrees with the vP for 3rd.sg. rather than the vP-internal subject. In the prepositional system on the other hand, lexical DPs occur with bare stems and φ-inflection spells out affixed pronouns. The mechanics predict that in verbal constructions where the subject originates outside the vP, it is local enough to control the agreement of T, which correctly yields Have under a prepositional analysis as the sole verb immune to the Complementarity Effect. Finally, we propose a typology of Complementarity Effects in agreement depending on the interaction of intervention (frozen agreement) and syntactic incorporation past the intervener. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Partial agreement between verbs and conjoined noun phrases in languages like Swahili is only possible if the conjoined noun phrase (NP) follows the verb, that is, it is directly related to word order. This paper presents an analysis of partial agreement within Dynamic Syntax, a formal model of interpretation which models syntax as the building of semantic tree representations, driven by words in the order in which they appear in the utterance. The analysis presented makes the relation between partial agreement and word order explicit in that it shows that a preceding conjoined NP has already been assigned a plural value when the agreeing verb is parsed. In contrast, when the verb is parsed first, both the first conjunct and the fully developed conjunction can fulfil the requirement imposed by the verb. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to provide a novel account to ‘that-t’ phenomena, following minimalist assumptions. Taking subject extraction out of complement clauses (the ‘that-t’ effect) as the key case, it is argued that the licensing and identification parts of the ECP correspond to PF and LF requirements respectively. In particular, subject extraction over that yields ungrammaticality because in this case the Agr-features of T fail to be lexicalized; thus the CP phase contains features that have not been satisfied and the derivation crashes. C0 is taken to correspond to the realization of the feature content of T (plus Agr) in C, thus allowing for the lexicalization of Agr. The interpretation of Agr as a variable is determined in connection with the wh-phrase in the matrix Spec,CP via the operation Agree. To this end, I consider the relation between C and T, the one between C and Agr in non-extraction contexts as well (e.g. ‘pro-drop’ under V2), and also the parameterization of subject extraction as a by-product of the different ways of lexicalizing Agr and/or C. The proposed analysis succeeds in deriving the empirical effects of the ECP derivationally, without furthermore postulating extra technical devices such as proper head government and traces. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]