Long distance agreement in Godoberi (Daghestanian) complement clauses

Abstract

The term long distance agreement is used here for a construction in which the complement-taking verb agrees with an argument of its complement clause. Long distance agreement in gender occurs with certain complement-taking verbs in Godoberi, a Nakh-Daghestanian language. This kind of agreement is quite unusual cross-linguistically, and unexpected also from the point of view of current theories of agreement. While Daghestanian agreement syntax is unusual in several other respects as well, I show in this paper that long-distance agreement in Godoberi is not as exotic as it appears at first sight. The complement-taking verbs with which it occurs are those that commonly occur in clause-union constructions in other languages, and a similar analysis is proposed for Godoberi here. In this perspective, long distance agreement can be taken as one symptom of incipient grammaticalization of the complement-taking verbs. I cite parallels from other languages and end with a brief general discussion of the role of grammaticalization in the diachronic spread of agreement to new targets