This book is about what the 'lack' of agreement indicates about the
structure of language. Rather than assuming that mistakes occur in
languages, disagreement can be seen as an indication of a certain
structural relationship. In a Minimalist framework, the partial
agreement or complete lack of agreement is determined by when
checking of case and agreement takes place and with what nominal
element. Earlier work has shown that there may be variation
regarding the number of functional categories a language activates.
If that account is correct, languages with fewer functional
categories (Dutch and Old English) will also have fewer specifiers
and therefore less Spec-Head agreement. In these cases, government
will play a role in the checking of case and agreement. There are,
however, other reasons for the 'breakdown'. For instance,
expletives play a major role and they may only be specified for
some features (number or person) and when they agree with the verb,
the 'real' subject does not. Two additional reasons are discussed:
the impact from grammaticalization and from asymmetrical (e.g.
coordinate) structures. The focus is on Modern, Old and Middle
English and Dutch, but other Germanic languages (German, Swedish,
Yiddish), Romance languages (Catalan, French, Italian, Spanish),
Arabic, Chamorro, Hebrew, Hopi, Kirundi, O'odham, Navajo, and
Urdu/Hindi are discussed as well.
General
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