On syntactic non-agreement

[E. Wayles Browne]

>>(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 i (i) and Acc in (j) and not vice versa?
>
>Alina Israeli

Ukrainian doesn't distinguish nominative and accusative on neuter
nouns, but it does distinguish them on neuter pronouns (vono = nom.,
joho = acc.). If Loren is correct (and I believe he _is_ correct),
sentence i with a pronoun will be
i'      Vono bulo zastavlene (kvitamy).
and not
i''     Joho bulo zastavlene (kvitamy).

And sentence j with a pronoun will be
j'      Joho bulo zastavleno (kvitamy).
and not
j''     Vono bulo zastavleno (kvitamy).
Can a Ukrainian-speaking list member confirm this?

Wayles Browne, Assoc. Prof. of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics
Morrill Hall, Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853, U.S.A.

tel. 607-255-0712 (o), 607-273-3009 (h)
fax 607-255-2044 (write FOR W. BROWNE)
e-mail ewb2 at cornell.edu