Avoiding disagreement about non-agreement

[Loren A. BILLINGS]

>>(III)  The reason I write "neut.sg." in scare quotes in (f) and (h) is
>>that, at least in Ukrainian, there is good reason to distinguish real
>>neuter-singular agreement--i.e., with a real neuter noun, as in (i)--with
>>non-agreement, as in (h) and (j).
>>
>>i.   Vikno                bulo zastavlene              (kvitamy)
>>     [window]neut.nom.sg. [was cluttered]neut.sg        flowers
>>
>>j.   Vikno                bulo zastavleno              (kvitamy)
>>     [window]neut.acc.sg  [was cluttered]non-agreement  flowers
>
>How do we know that it is Nom in (i) and Acc in (j) and not vice versa?
>
>Alina Israeli
<aisrael at AMERICAN.EDU>

Alina's keeping me on my toes!  But I'll rise to the challenge:  As it
turns out, quantified expressions come to the rescue.  If the subject
(podle^za^s^cee) of the sentence consists of a numeral + noun, then the
participial agreement must be with _-no_, not _-ne_, as the following
examples show:

k.  *Pivkimnaty   bulo zastavlene              (kvitamy)
     1/2room      [was cluttered]neut.sg.       flowers

l.   Pivkimnaty   bulo zastavleno              (kvitamy)
     1/2room      [was cluttered]non-agreement  flowers

That is, when the clausal subject lacks agreement features (i.e., there is
nothing to agree with), then the _-no_ form of the participle MUST be used.
(The copula does not show this distinction; it's _bulo_ in both neut.sg.
and non-agreement environments.)  Other subjects which REQUIRE -no/-to
participles are clausal ones.  The only time -ne/-te forms can be used is
in agreement with a subject nominal that has lexical neuter gender (in the
singular).

I'm pleased that this discussion of Ukrainian came back to "half"!


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Loren A. BILLINGS, Ph.D.  (e-mail:  billings at rz.uni-leipzig.de)

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