TY  - JOUR
U1  - Zeitschriftenartikel, wissenschaftlich - begutachtet (reviewed)
A1  - Hartmann, Jutta M.
A1  - Heycock, Caroline
T1  - A remark on Béjar & Kahnemuyipour 2017: specificational subjects do have phi-features
JF  - Journal of linguistics
N2  - In a number of languages, agreement in specificational copular sentences can or must be with the second of the two nominals, even when it is the first that occupies the canonical subject position. Béjar & Kahnemuyipour (2017) show that Persian and Eastern Armenian are two such languages. They then argue that ‘NP2 agreement’ occurs because the nominal in subject position (NP1) is not accessible to an external probe. It follows that actual agreement with NP1 should never be possible: the alternative to NP2 agreement should be ‘default’ agreement. We show that this prediction is false. In addition to showing that English has NP1, not default, agreement, we present new data from Icelandic, a language with rich agreement morphology, including cases that involve ‘plurale tantum’ nominals as NP1. These allow us to control for any confound from the fact that typically in a specificational sentence with two nominals differing in number, it is NP2 that is plural. We show that even in this case, the alternative to agreement with NP2 is agreement with NP1, not a default. Hence, we conclude that whatever the correct analysis of specificational sentences turns out to be, it must not predict obligatory failure of NP1 agreement.
KW  - agreement
KW  - copula
KW  - Icelandic
KW  - plurale tantum
KW  - specificational clause
KW  - Kopulasatz
KW  - Satzakzent
KW  - Syntaktische Analyse
Y1  - 2018
UN  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:mh39-79142
SN  - 0022-2267
SS  - 0022-2267
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022226718000117
DO  - https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022226718000117
N1  - Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.

This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.
VL  - 54
IS  - 3
SP  - 611
EP  - 627
PB  - Cambridge University Press
CY  - Cambridge
ER  -