Cover not available
Part of
Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics XXVI: Papers from the annual symposium on Arabic Linguistics. New York, 2012
Edited by Reem Khamis-Dakwar and Karen Froud
[Studies in Arabic Linguistics 2] 2014
► pp. 121–134

Multiple agreement in Arabic

| University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

This article analyzes multiple subject verb agreement in complex tense clauses in light of the Feature Inheritance (FI) approach (Chomsky 2008, 2013). After establishing that these complex tense clauses are bi-clausal with two TP projections and one CP, I argue that they present a challenge to FI according to which C is the locus of φ-features. I propose an analysis where I maintain that T is lexically specified for φ-features and show how this view can account for all the multiple agreement facts.

Published online: 30 October 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sal.2.08oua
References
Aoun, J., Benmamoun, E., & Sportiche, D
(1994) Agreement, conjunction, and word order in some varieties of Arabic. Linguistic Inquiry, 25, 195–220.Google Scholar
Aoun, J., Benmamoun E., & Choueiri, L
(2010) The syntax of Arabic. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bahloul, M., & Harbert, W
(1993) Agreement asymmetries in Arabic. In J. Mead (Ed.), The Eleventh West Coast Conference on formal linguistics (pp. 15–31). Stanford, CT: Center for the Study of Language and Information.Google Scholar
Benmamoun, E
(2000) The feature structure of functional categories: A comparative study of Arabic dialects. NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Carstens, V
(2003) Rethinking complementizer agreement: Agree with a case-checked goal. Linguistic Inquiry, 34, 393–412.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N
(2005) Three factors in language design. Linguistic Inquiry, 36(1), 1–22.Google Scholar
(2007) Approaching UG from below. In U. Sauerland, & H.-M. Gärtner (Eds.), Interfaces + recursion = language? Chomsky’s minimalism and the view from syntax-semantics (pp. 1–29). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
(2008) On phases. In R. Freidin, C. Otero, & M.L. Zubizarreta (Eds.), Foundational issues in linguistic theory (pp. 133–166). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
(2013) Problems of projection. Lingua, 18, 1–35.Google Scholar
Eid, M
(1991) Verbless sentences in Arabic and Hebrew. In B. Comrie, & M. Eid (Eds.), Perspectives on Arabic linguistics, Vol. III: Papers from the Third Annual Symposium on Arabic linguistics, Salt Lake City, Utah 1989(pp. 31–61). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Fassi Fehri, A
(1982) Linguistique Arabe: forme et interprétation. Rabat, Morocco: Publication de la Faculté des lettres et Sciences Humaines.Google Scholar
(1988) Agreement, binding, and coherence. In M. Barlow, & C.A. Ferguson (Eds.), Agreement in natural language: Approaches, theories, descriptions (pp.107–158). Stanford: Center for the Study of Language and Information.Google Scholar
(1993) Issues in the structure of Arabic clauses and words. Dordrecht: Kluwer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2004) Temporal/aspectual interaction and variation across Arabic heights. In J. Gueron, & J. Lecame (Eds.), The syntax of time (pp. 235–257). Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
(2012) Key features and parameters in Arabic grammar. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haak, M
(2006) Auxiliaries. In V. Kees, M. Eid, A. Elgibali, M. Woidich, & A. Zaborski (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Arabic languages and linguistics (Vols. I-V, pp. 216–221). Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Haegeman, L
(1993) Some speculations on argument shift, clitics and crossing in West Flemish. Linguistische Berichte. Sonderheft, 5(2p.), 131–160.Google Scholar
Haegeman, L., & von Koppen, M
(2012) Complementizer agreement and the relation between C0 and T0 . Linguistic Inquiry, 43, 441–454. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Henderson, B
(2007) Multiple Agreement and Inversion in Bantu. Syntax, 9 (3), 275–289.Google Scholar
Hiraiwa, K
(2001) Multiple agree and the defect intervention constraint. In O. Matushansky, & E. Gurzoni (Eds.), The proceedings of the HUMIT 2000, MIT Working Papers in linguistics, 40, 67–80. Cambridge, MA: MITWPL.Google Scholar
(2005) Dimensions of symmetry in syntax: Agreement and clausal architecture. Ph.D. dissertation, MIT.
Miyagawa, S
(2010) Why agree? why move? Unifying agreement-based and discourse-configurational languages. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Mohammad, M
(1990) The problem of subject-verb agreement in Arabic: Towards a solution. In M. Eid (Ed.), Perspectives on Arabic linguistics, Vol. I: Papers from the First Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics, Salt Lake City, Utah 1987 (pp. 95–125). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ouali, H
(2008) On C-to-T -feature transfer: The nature of agreement and anti- agreement in Berber. In R. D’ Alessandro, G.H. Hrafnbjargarson, & S. Fischer (Eds.), Agreement restrictions (pp. 159–180). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
(2011) Agreement, pronominal clitics and negation in Tamazight Berber: A unified analysis. NY: Continuum.Google Scholar
Ouali, H., & Fortin, C
(2007) The syntax of complex tense in Moroccan Arabic. In E. Benmamoun (Ed.), Perspectives on Arabic linguistics XIV (pp. 175–189). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Richards, M.D
(2007) On feature inheritance: An argument from the phase impenetrability condition. Linguistic Inquiry, 38, 563–572. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shlonsky, U
(1997) Clause structure and word order in Hebrew and Arabic: An essay in comparative semitic syntax. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Soltan, U
(2007) On formal feature licensing in minimalism: Aspects of standard Arabic morphosyntax. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park, MD.
(2011) On issues of Arabic syntax: An essay in syntactic argumentation. Brill’s Annual of Afroasiatic Language and Linguistics, 3, 236–280. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Crone, Phil
2017. Chapter 7. Arabic first conjunct agreement and the interaction between constraints on agree & movement. In Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics XXIX [Studies in Arabic Linguistics, 5], ► pp. 181 ff. DOI logo
Jarrah, Marwan
2020. Complementizer Agreement and the T0‐Φ Parameter in Jordanian Arabic. Studia Linguistica 74:1 ► pp. 139 ff. DOI logo
Jarrah, Marwan, Rasheed Al-Jarrah & Ekab Al-Shawashreh
2022. No case tampering once transfer domain is formed!. The Linguistic Review 39:2 ► pp. 203 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 12 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.