Concord and labeling
Vicki Carstens
June 2018
 

This paper explores the labeling hypothesis of Chomsky 2013, 2015 in relation to DP-internal syntax. Possessors and external arguments (EA) of nouns that have them give rise to [XP, YP] configurations, which are problematical for labeling under Chomsky's assumptions. But in languages with grammatical gender, N/n differ from the clausal counterparts V/v in having intrinsic phi-features. My paper claims that gender concord between n and a possessor or EA labels nP via shared features, enabling these arguments to surface nP-internally. Bantu languages (among others) show this feature-sharing clearly in the form of overt concord on the morpheme 'of' that introduces a lexical argument. In contrast, possessors in a number of genderless languages, including Turkish and Yup’ik, must raise to permit labeling of nP, and surface in a high functional category whose head can agree with them in the DP-internal counterpart to subject agreement (Abney 1987). The paper contributes to an ongoing debate regarding the mechanics of concord and its place in the grammar: is it a consequence of Agree in the syntax, or a distinct, perhaps post-syntactic process? Assuming that it feeds the labeling algorithm and bleeds DP-internal possessor agreement and possessor raising, I argue that gender-number concord are part of narrow syntax and the outcome of Agree. My proposals are based on data from Bantu, Afro-asiatic, and Romance languages on the one hand and Turkish, Hungarian, Yup’ik, Chamorro, and Tsutujil on the other. I also discuss some less transparent facts of Maasai (where a possessive agreement morpheme agrees bidirectionally), and NP-fronting as a path to successful DP-internal labeling.
Format: [ pdf ]
Reference: lingbuzz/003637
(please use that when you cite this article)
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keywords: concord, labeling, agreement, possessors, np, dp, bantu, turkish, west flemish, linkers, morphology, syntax
previous versions: v4 [June 2018]
v3 [September 2017]
v2 [September 2017]
v1 [August 2017]
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