Monday, June 16, 2014

Detail #90: Even more congruence shenanigans!

As the one trick pony I am, I present even more congruence things!

Let us assume something a bit like the previous post: gender/class or number congruence is only marked on one constituent in the VP: when there is a subject complement in the verb phrase (i.e. something like Y in "... is Y", "... becomes Y", "... stands Y" (as in "stands tall"), etc, the congruence marker appears on Y instead of the verb. However, let us go even further: person congruence migrates to the complement - provided that the complement can carry it. Otherwise, the congruence is lost.

Thus, even adjectives can inflect for person, but only do so when standing with some kind of copula, with reduced marking on the copula if there is a complement. The copula takes on existential meaning without a complement.

Let us also have object congruence on verbs in the language, but that congruence likewise migrates to the complement:
she slapped you silly :  slap.3sg_fem silly.2sg_obj

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