Mr. Omer Preminger will present - The Nature of Syntactic Computation: Evidence from Agreement

In this talk, I argue for a particular logic by which agreement (in particular, agreement between a verb or tense/aspect/mood-marker and a noun-phrase) is related to grammaticality, and show how this conclusion illuminates certain longstanding questions in the theory of syntax. In particular, I argue that agreement is best captured in terms of an operation. Crucially, while invocation of this operation is obligatory, its successful culmination is not enforced by the grammar. Such a theory contrasts sharply with alternatives that enforce agreement through representational devices such as un/interpretable features (Chomsky 2000, 2001). The argument is based primarily on data from so-called “omnivorous agreement” contexts in the Mayan languages Kaqchikel and K’ichee’, with supporting evidence from Basque, Icelandic, and Hebrew. I then show how this conclusion leads to: (i) a reexamination of the relations between movement, agreement, and grammaticality; (ii) a particular understanding of what it means for a language to allow, or not allow, quirky subjects; and ultimately, (iii) the conclusion that both agreement and morphological case must be part of the syntactic component proper (contra certain recent proposals in the literature).