Pseudopartitives vs. agreement attraction

ǂan ǂexperimental study

Greta Mazzaggio (Author), Ludovico Franco (Author), M. Rita Manzini (Author)

Abstract

Pseudopartitive constructions are constructions of the form DP-of-NP, where the quantificational, collective or container DP head is interpreted as measuring the embedded NP. A verb can agree either with the head (Head Agreement) or with the embedded NP (Embedded Agreement). We argue that agreement alternations with pseudopartitives form part of lin- guistic competence. Specifically, we account for them in terms of a dual la- belling option open to of -DP/NP constituents, as either PPs (of projecting) or as NPs (of not projecting). Thus, we reject the conclusion that pseudopar- titives are to be accounted for in processing terms, and wholly subsumed un- der agreement attraction. In two studies, we investigate subject-verb num- ber agreement (Study 1, N = 103) and gender agreement (Study 2, N = 87), in an acceptability task with pseudopartitive constructions involving either a collective noun or an approximate quantifier, controlling for the nature of the head. Results show that Italian pseudopartitives allows embedded agree- ment, depending on the speaker and on the nature of the head (quantifiers better than collective Ns).

Keywords

pseudopartitives;agreement;number;gender;agreement attraction;

Data

Language:	English
Year of publishing:	2020
Typology:	1.01 - Original Scientific Article
Organization:	UNG - University of Nova Gorica
UDC:	81
COBISS:	76764163
ISSN:	1720-9331
Views:	994
Downloads:	0
Average score:	0 (0 votes)
Metadata: