Against Upwards Agree: A view from Daghestan

March 22, 2019

This talk discusses a recent approach to ϕ-agreement as formulated in Bjorkman & Zeijlstra to appear. According to that approach, all probing relations are established by probing “upwards”, and all exceptions traditionally analysed as involving probing “downwards” are viewed as being parasitic on such Upwards-Agree relations. By looking at (ϕ)-agreement patterns in two morphologically ergative East-Caucasian languages, Mehweb and Avar, I identify what I view as insurmountable empirical hurdles to Bjorkman & Zeijlstra’s analysis. I also identify a number of conceptual issues with their analysis.

You can view the slides here.

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I’m Pavel Rudnev, and this is my personal website. I’m a research fellow and lecturer in linguistics at HSE University in Moscow. My main area of interest is syntax and its interfaces with sound and meaning. In particular, my current research revolves around the structure of nominal expressions, agreement, case and verbal morphosyntax in East Caucasian languages, and the syntax-to-phonology mapping in Russian Sign Language.

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