Agree Probes Down: Anaphoric Feature Valuation and Phase Reference
Michael Diercks, Marjo van Koppen, Mike Putnam
June 2017
 

is paper investigates the question of the directionality of Agree in the domain of complementizer agreement (CA). Germanic and Bantu pa erns of CA provide prima facie evidence of both downward- and upward- probing relations, as Ger- manic complementizers are valued by the subject of the embedded clause, whereas the relevant Lubukusu complementizers are valued by the subject of the main clause. We argue, however, that all feature valuation relations can be explained by a downward-probing Agree operation. Apparent instances of upward-probing feature-valuation are analyzed as anaphoric feature valuation, which is a com- posite operation consisting of movement of the relevant (unvalued, interpretable) features followed by probing of their c-command domain for valuation. A model of syntax that relies on the referential properties of phases is proposed to derive the behavior of anaphoric features from more fundamental syntactic properties, namely, that more rigid reference of a phase is derived by movement of phase-internal elements to the edge of that phase.
Format: [ pdf ]
Reference: lingbuzz/003539
(please use that when you cite this article)
Published in: tbd
keywords: agree, upward-probing, downward-probing, complementizer agreement, anaphora, syntax
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