Long-distance agreement without Probe-Goal relations
In this paper, I explore the possibility accounting for constructions that appear to instantiate Long-Distance Agreement without appealing to a formal operation of agreement-at-a-distance. The viability of such an account is particularly important in light of recent theoretical developments that suggest a move away from Probe-Goal oriented approaches to movement, and towards viewing movement as a response to formal needs of the moving element itself. Broadly speaking, I consider two possible approaches: (i) agreement is established in a purely local con.guration, followed by the agreeing head (and whatever material ends up intervening between this head and the target nounphrase) moving away, giving the impression of Long-Distance Agreement; and (ii) apparent Long-Distance Agreement is actually an instance of syntactic movement in which the phonological component chooses to pronounce the moved element in its lower position. It is shown that the latter approach fares better with respect to the scopal properties of several constructions, including English expletiveassociate constructions, and so-called Long-Distance Agreement in Hindi-Urdu and in Basque.