Phi-Feature Competition in Morphology and Syntax

Abstract

Abstract A long-standing problem in morphosyntax concerns the analysis of what I will call dependent agreement. Dependent agreement arises when a single position can show agreement with either of two arguments, depending on their relative properties.’ Such cases can be divided into two classes. In position based dependent agreement, the choice of which argument triggers agreement depends primarily on the relative syntactic positions of the arguments. This type of agreement is illustrated in the Yucatec Mayan perfect (1).2 A suffix on the main verb preferentially indexes the internal argument, while the external argument triggers agreement on an aspectual auxiliary (1a). However, if there is no internal argument, the verb suffix instead indexes the external argument (1b-c), which in turn triggers no agreement on the auxiliary.