concord, agreement and suppletion

Ora Matushansky matushan at NOOS.FR
Mon Jan 13 22:56:20 UTC 2003


Dear everyone,

Would anyone know if the following three phenomena are possible:
(1)	Definiteness agreement: the main verb/predicate reflects the
definiteness of the subject. Things like the Hebrew accusative "et" on
definite objects and Spanish "a" don't count :)

(2)	Declension class agreement: the declension class of the noun is
reflected on the main predicate/verb.

(3)	Declension class concord: the declension class of the head noun is
reflected on the modifying adjectives, the article, the possessor, the
demonstrative...

NB: In order not to confuse declension class (grouping that determines how
Case markings sound) with gender (noun class, I would guess it's the
grouping that determines the pronoun, or?), I would rather ask for data
from languages that have both (e.g. Latin, Russian - which don't have any
of the above)

Any other proposals for features that do not/may not trigger agreement or
concord?

And finally, are Case and definiteness ever involved in suppletion (as far
as I can recall from Carson's email, possessives do)?

Many thanks in advance,

O
Ora Matushansky

CNRS - UMR 7023 (Paris 8)
email: matushan at noos.fr
page web: http://mapage.noos.fr/matushan/



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