Person and Licensing in Georgian: Puzzles for Cyclic Agree
Résumé
Cyclic Agree and the Person Licensing Condition predict ungrammaticality for a wide range of argument combinations in Georgian, incorrectly, though both have been used to explain core argument agreement in the language. This problem is defused by positing a high π-probe on T, in addition to a previously proposed low articulated probe on v. The higher π-probe is independently observable as added verbal morphology: a suffix-ablaut system. The high π-probe is obligatory and this creates interactions between agreement loci as a result of general mechanisms (probe unification). A comparison between Georgian and Basque reveals systematic differences attributable to a contrast in the distribution of obligatory probes: the Georgian π-probe on T is obligatory, while in Basque it is added to satisfy the PLC. This explains a difference between the languages with respect to alignment: intransitive S in Basque is consistently tracked by inflection characteristic of the v probe, while intransitive S in Georgian is consistently tracked by inflection characteristic of the T probe. Details of the interactions between agreement loci support a view of cyclicity where syntactic operations apply freely up to convergence, suggesting that cyclicity follows from Minimal Search or No-Tampering rather than Earliness.
Domaines
Sciences de l'Homme et Société
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