United Cyclic Agree

Authors

  • Squid Tamar-Mattis Yale University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3765/plsa.v9i1.5675

Keywords:

syntax, morphology, agreement, person-case constraint, Basque, Feature Gluttony, Cyclic Agree

Abstract

The operation Agree has been defined in many different ways for different purposes. This presents a problem for minimalist syntax, since no one form of Agree can explain all of the relevant generalizations. It becomes especially problematic when multiple versions of Agree must exist simultaneously on the same probe in order to explain different phenomena. This article examines two such phenomena in Basque finite verb agreement: ergative displacement and the Strong Person-Case Constraint, and the theories that account for them: Cyclic Agree (Béjar and Rezac 2009) and Feature Gluttony (Coon and Keine 2021). A combined approach called United Cyclic Agree is proposed, which captures the advantages of both theories without generating any new erroneous predictions. In this theory, all of the segments in a probe continue probing in successive cycles until they all have matching goals or there is nowhere left to probe.

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Published

2024-05-15

How to Cite

Tamar-Mattis, Squid. 2024. “United Cyclic Agree”. Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America 9 (1): 5675. https://doi.org/10.3765/plsa.v9i1.5675.