Work

Upward agreement and syntactic counterfeeding in Lubukusu

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: What are the constraints on agreement, and how does it interact with other syntactic operations? Recent studies suggest that syntactic dependencies are tier-based strictly local (TSL) over Minimalist Grammar derivation trees, a computationally restrictive model which closely fits many aspects of the formal typology (Graf 2022, Hanson 2025). Using this framework, I provide an analysis of upward complementizer agreement in Lubukusu (Diercks 2013), and show that it correctly predicts lack of agreement with hyperraised subjects without any additional assumptions. I argue further that the phenomenon should be understood as a kind of syntactic counterfeeding, which together with the existence of feeding, bleeding, and counterbleeding, suggests the need for a syntactic framework which can handle variable operation ordering.

Source: Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America

DOI: 10.3765/plsa.v10i1.5960

Author: Kenneth Hanson

Institution: Stony Brook University

Language: English

Topic: Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

Subfield: Language and Linguistics

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: diamond

Funders: National Science Foundation, Stony Brook University

Award: CAREER: Abstract Universals in (Morpho)Syntax: Computational Characterizations and Empirical Implications