Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.22210/suvlin.2020.089.02
Postverbal conjoined subjects and closest conjunct agreement in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian: an experimental study
Nermina Čordalija
orcid.org/0000-0001-9519-751X
; Fiolozofski fakultet u Sarajevu
Ivana Jovović
; University of Connecticut, Dept. of Linguistics
Nedžad Leko
; Filozofski fakultet u Sarajevu
Abstract
In some previous experimental work on agreement strategies in South Slavic languages, it was demonstrated that the closest conjunct agreement (CCA) is the only available strategy for agreement
with conjoined noun phrases in postverbal contexts. However, the examples that are claimed to be
a result of CCA could potentially be analyzed as a clausal ellipsis (CE). Th e CE analysis was argued
for by Aoun, Benmamoun and Sportiche (1994). In their approach based on examples from three
dialects of Arabic, the postverbal linear agreement was claimed to be a result of CE, not of CCA. Th us,
they predicted the semantic independence of two coordinated events. However, this claim is diffi cult
to defend if a specifi c type of predicates is taken into account – the so–called collective predicates.
Th erefore, we designed a sentence–picture matching experiment with collective verbs and postverbal subjects with speakers of Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS) to test whether the postverbal linear
agreement was a result of phrasal coordination or CE. Th e study managed to show that CCA is not a
result of CE, but a distinct agreement strategy.
Keywords
predicate agreement; postverbal subjects; collective predicates; coordinated subjects; syntax; Slavic languages
Hrčak ID:
242007
URI
Publication date:
30.7.2020.
Visits: 1.233 *