Evading agreement: A new perspective on low nominative agreement in Icelandic

Jutta Hartmann; Caroline Heycock

Evading agreement: A new perspective on low nominative agreement in Icelandic

School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Abstract / Description of output

One of the various aspects of Icelandic syntax that is well-established in the literature is that it allows agreement with nominative DPs that are not in the canonical subject position. In this paper we present one of the least-studied cases in Icelandic where there may be agreement with a “low nominative:” namely agreement in specificational copular clauses. These cases are of particular interest because, in contrast to most other configurations, agreement with the low nominative appears to involve “skipping” agreement with a higher argument that is also nominative. Further, as we will show, agreement is possible not only for Num- ber but also for Person, providing another counterexample to the putative generalization that agreement for Person is always strictly local (Baker 2008).

Original language	English
Title of host publication	NELS 46
Subtitle of host publication	Proceedings of the Forty-Sixth Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society
Editors	Christopher Hammerly, Brandon Prickett
Place of Publication	Amherst, MA, USA
Publisher	GLSA Publications
Pages	67-80
Number of pages	14
Volume	2
ISBN (Print)	9781539105206
Publication status	Published - 18 Oct 2016
Event	NELS 46 - Concordia University, Montreal, Canada Duration: 16 Oct 2015 → 18 Oct 2015

Conference

Conference	NELS 46
Country/Territory	Canada
City	Montreal
Period	16/10/15 → 18/10/15

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

syntax
agreement
Icelandic

Access to Document

HartmannHeycockNELS2016EvadingAgreementAccepted author manuscript, 107 KB

Cite this

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title = "Evading agreement: A new perspective on low nominative agreement in Icelandic",

abstract = "One of the various aspects of Icelandic syntax that is well-established in the literature is that it allows agreement with nominative DPs that are not in the canonical subject position. In this paper we present one of the least-studied cases in Icelandic where there may be agreement with a “low nominative:” namely agreement in specificational copular clauses. These cases are of particular interest because, in contrast to most other configurations, agreement with the low nominative appears to involve “skipping” agreement with a higher argument that is also nominative. Further, as we will show, agreement is possible not only for Num- ber but also for Person, providing another counterexample to the putative generalization that agreement for Person is always strictly local (Baker 2008).",

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author = "Jutta Hartmann and Caroline Heycock",

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volume = "2",

pages = "67--80",

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note = "NELS 46 ; Conference date: 16-10-2015 Through 18-10-2015",

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Evading agreement: A new perspective on low nominative agreement in Icelandic. / Hartmann, Jutta; Heycock, Caroline.
NELS 46: Proceedings of the Forty-Sixth Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society. ed. / Christopher Hammerly; Brandon Prickett. Vol. 2 Amherst, MA, USA: GLSA Publications, 2016. p. 67-80.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

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T1 - Evading agreement

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AU - Heycock, Caroline

PY - 2016/10/18

Y1 - 2016/10/18

N2 - One of the various aspects of Icelandic syntax that is well-established in the literature is that it allows agreement with nominative DPs that are not in the canonical subject position. In this paper we present one of the least-studied cases in Icelandic where there may be agreement with a “low nominative:” namely agreement in specificational copular clauses. These cases are of particular interest because, in contrast to most other configurations, agreement with the low nominative appears to involve “skipping” agreement with a higher argument that is also nominative. Further, as we will show, agreement is possible not only for Num- ber but also for Person, providing another counterexample to the putative generalization that agreement for Person is always strictly local (Baker 2008).

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KW - agreement

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PB - GLSA Publications

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Evading agreement: A new perspective on low nominative agreement in Icelandic

Abstract / Description of output

Conference

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Up or down? Resolving agreement in copular sentences

Up or down? Resolving agreement in copular sentences

Cite this

Evading agreement: A new perspective on low nominative agreement in Icelandic

Abstract / Description of output

Conference

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Projects

Up or down? Resolving agreement in copular sentences

Datasets

Up or down? Resolving agreement in copular sentences

Cite this