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In:Theoretical Issues in the Languages of the Caucasus
Edited by Ümit Atlamaz, Ömer Demirok and Balkız Öztürk
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 294] 2026
► pp. 237–279

Chapter 8
Hyperagreement in Alashkert Armenian

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Abstract
This paper examines agreement doubling (hyperagreement) in Alashkert Armenian and argues that it results from the interaction of three language-specific properties: auxiliary placement, verbal morphology, and the semantics of the imperfective aspect. Hyperagreement is restricted to imperfective constructions and displays a systematic transitive-intransitive asymmetry. In transitive clauses, where the auxiliary does not linearly follow the lexical verb, agreement morphology appears on both the auxiliary and the verb with identical exponence. In intransitives, by contrast, the auxiliary typically follows the verb and agreement is realized only once. I propose that hyperagreement arises through post-syntactic feature lowering from T head to the verb. When the auxiliary and the verb are not linearly adjacent, The agreement features are realized both on the auxiliary and the participle. When they are adjacent, however, haplology triggers Impoverishment, deleting one set of features. This analysis derives the asymmetry between transitive and intransitive imperfectives and situates hyperagreement at the intersection of morphosyntax, linearization, and aspectual semantics.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background on SEA and Alashkert
    • 2.1Present and imperfective
    • 2.2Past and imperfective
    • 2.3Past and present perfect
    • 2.4Perfective
    • 2.5Summary and generalizations
  • 3.Clausal structure
    • 3.1The second-position effect
  • 4.Verbal morphology
    • 4.1Why is the perfective special?
  • 5.Proposal
    • 5.1Recapturing the facts
    • 5.2Deriving hyperagreement
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Author queries
  • Notes
  • References
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