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A recurring hypothesis about the agreement phenomena generalized as closest-conjunct agreement takes this pattern to result from reduced clausal conjunction, simply displaying the agreement of the verb with the nonconjoined subject of the clause whose content survives ellipsis (Aoun, Benmamoun & Sportiche 1994, 1999; see also Wilder 1997). Closest-conjunct agreement is the dominant agreement pattern in the South Slavic languages Slovenian and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian. A natural question is whether closest-conjunct agreement in these varieties may indeed be analyzed as entirely derived from conjunction reduction. In this article, we report on two experiments conducted to test this. The results reject the hypothesis as far as these languages are concerned, thereby upholding the relevance of models developed to account for closest-conjunct agreement within theories of agreement.

In some previous experimental work on agreement strategies in South Slavic languages, it was demonstrated that the closest conjunct agreement (CCA) is the only available strategy for agreement with conjoined noun phrases in postverbal contexts. However, the examples that are claimed to be a result of CCA could potentially be analyzed as a clausal ellipsis (CE). Th e CE analysis was argued for by Aoun, Benmamoun and Sportiche (1994). In their approach based on examples from three dialects of Arabic, the postverbal linear agreement was claimed to be a result of CE, not of CCA. Th us, they predicted the semantic independence of two coordinated events. However, this claim is diffi cult to defend if a specifi c type of predicates is taken into account – the so–called collective predicates. Th erefore, we designed a sentence–picture matching experiment with collective verbs and postverbal subjects with speakers of Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS) to test whether the postverbal linear agreement was a result of phrasal coordination or CE. Th e study managed to show that CCA is not a result of CE, but a distinct agreement strategy., U nekim ranijim radovima o strategijama slaganja predikata s koordiniranim subjektom (vidi Marušič et al. 2015, Willer–Gold et al. 2016, Čordalija et al. 2016), ustanovljeno je da slaganje predikata s bližom imenicom u koordiniranom subjektu jest jedina moguća strategija slaganja kada subjekt slijedi iza predikata. Međutim, primjeri za koje se tvrdi da su rezultat slaganja predikata s bližom imenicom u takvim kontekstima mogli bi se potencijalno analizirati i kao rezultat rečenične elipse. Upravo takvu analizu zagovaraju Aoun, Benmamoun i Sportiche (1994). Njihov pristup se zasniva na primjerima iz triju dijalekata arapskog jezika te utvrđuju da je linearno slaganje u kontekstima s postverbalnim subjektom rezultat rečenične elipse, a ne slaganja predikata s bližom imenicom. Prema tome, oni predviđaju semantičku nezavisnost dva koordinirana događaja. Međutim, Munn (1999) ukazuje kako je ovu tvrdnju teško obraniti ako se uzme u obzir specifi čan tip predikata, tzv. zbirni predikat. Zbog toga smo dizajnirali eksperiment u kojem smo tražili od izvornih govornika bosanskog/hrvatskog/srpskog jezika da ocijene u kolikoj mjeri rečenice sa zbirnim glagolima koje prethode koordiniranom subjektu odgovaraju pratećem crtežu koji predstavlja događaj ili situaciju koju rečenica izražava. Rezultati eksperimenta pokazuju da primjeri slaganja predikata s koordiniranim subjektom nisu rezultat rečenične elipse, već zasebna strategija slaganja – slaganje s bližom imenicom. Budući da eksperiment nije pokazao značajnu razliku u prihvatljivosti između rečenica koje sadržavaju koordinirani subjekt i prosti nekoordinirani subjekt sa zbirnim glagolima, zaključili smo da rečenice s koordiniranim subjektom i zbirnim predikatom (glagoli poput sudarati se) nisu derivirani pomoću rečenične elipse. U protivnom, takve rečenice bile bi rangirane po prihvatljivosti znatno niže od svih drugih zbog toga što bi crtež koji ide uz takve rečenice bio nekompatibilan s interpretacijom koja podrazumijeva dva događaja. Takva interpretacija bila bi neizbježna ukoliko bi se takve rečenice u dubinskoj strukturi sastojale od dviju koordiniranih rečenica.

Significance Syntactic distance is standardly measured hierarchically only by counting the nodes in a tree-like structure. The dominance of hierarchy over the other logically possible measure of distance—e.g., counting words in a linear order—stems from a large body of research. We show a strong preference for the linear strategy in coordination structures in South Slavic languages, with a design comparing agreement controllers that can come either before or after their target. A large-scale study over six geographically and linguistically distinct varieties discovered remarkable uniformity in this preference. Variation discovered was mostly intraindividual, strongly suggesting that a language can entertain synchronous “multiple grammars,” the most striking of which is the one requiring direct reference to linear order., Hierarchical structure has been cherished as a grammatical universal. We use experimental methods to show where linear order is also a relevant syntactic relation. An identical methodology and design were used across six research sites on South Slavic languages. Experimental results show that in certain configurations, grammatical production can in fact favor linear order over hierarchical structure. However, these findings are limited to coordinate structures and distinct from the kind of production errors found with comparable configurations such as “attraction” errors. The results demonstrate that agreement morphology may be computed in a series of steps, one of which is partly independent from syntactic hierarchy.

This paper shows that Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS), like Slovenian, has three distinct strategies for subject-predicate agreement when the subject consists of conjoined noun phrases: (i) agreement with the maximal projection, a Boolean Phrase (P (ii) agreement with the conjunct that is closest to the participle; (iii) agreement with the conjunct that is hierarchically the highest. In order to test the initial hypothesis that there are three agreement strategies, a controlled experimental study of the morphosyntactic agreement between conjoined subjects and participles in BCS was conducted, consisting of three experiments: an oral-production experiment, a written-production experiment, and an acceptability-judgment task. The experiments showed a high presence of default agreement and closest-conjunct agreement. Of the preverbal conjoined phrases, 50% elicited default masculine agreement, while 95% of postverbal conjoined noun phrases elicited closest-conjunct agreement. However, the bulk of the analysis was focused on the possibility of treating highest-conjunct agreement (HCA) as a legitimate agreement strategy. The agreement forms in the preverbal-subject (SV) examples showed HCA 7% of the time. Moreover, acceptability-judgment results showed that scores for HCA examples ranged between 2 and 3 (1 = weakly acceptable; 5 = strongly acceptable). Last-conjunct agreement (LCA) for postverbal-subject (VS) examples, on the other hand, occurred only in 1% of the examples in the corpus, and these examples were mostly rated weakly acceptable by native speakers (1.5/5 on average). For this reason, they were classified as performance errors, eliminating LCA as an agreement strategy. The overall results go against Boskovic (2009), who does not acknowledge HCA as a legitimate strategy, but they confirm the findings of Marusic, Nevins, and Badecker (2015).

Naknadno.

In this paper, we demonstrate that Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS), like Slovenian, has three distinct strategies of subject-predicate agreement when the subject consists of conjoined noun phrases: 1. agreement with the maximal projection - a Boolean Phrase (&P), 2. agreement with the conjunct which is closest to the participle, and 3. agreement with the conjunct which is hierarchically the highest. In order to test the initial hypothesis that there are three agreement strategies, we conducted a controlled experimental study of the morphosyntax of agreement between conjoined subjects and participles in BCS, which consisted of an oral production experiment and a written production experiment. These experiments revealed a high presence of default agreement and closest conjunct agreement in the language. 50% of preverbal conjoined phrases elicited the default masculine agreement and 95% of postverbal conjoined noun phrases elicited the closest conjunct agreement. However, the bulk of the analysis focused on the possibility of treating the highest conjunct agreement (HCA) as a legitimate agreement strategy. 7% of all of the agreement forms in the subject preverbal (SV) examples demonstrated HCA. These figures increased to 13% if individual conditions were considered. Last conjunct agreement (LCA) for subject postverbal (VS) examples, on the other hand, was only present in 1% of the examples. For this reason, we classified them as performance errors and refuted LCA as an agreement strategy. These results are contrary to Bošković%s findings (2009), in which he does not acknowledge HCA as a legitimate strategy, however, our results do confirm the findings of Marušič et al. (2015). V članku pokažemo, da ima bosanski/hrvaški/srbski jezik (BHS) tako kot slovenščina tri strategije ujemanja med osebkom in predikatom, ko je osebek koordinirana samostalniška zveza: 1. ujemanje z maksimalno projekcijo - Boolejeva zveza (&P); 2. ujemanje s koordinirano prvino, ki je bližja deležniku; 3. ujemanje s koordinirano prvino, ki je najvišje v hierarhiji. Da bi preverili podmeno o treh strategijah ujemanja, smo izvedli kontrolirano eksperimentalno študijo oblikoslovno-skladenjskega ujemanja med koordiniranimi osebki in deležniki v BHS, ki je vključevala eksperimenta z govorjenim in pisnim jezikom. Eksperimenta sta pokazala visoko prisotnost privzetega ujemanja in ujemanja z najbližjo koordinirano prvino v osebku. Petdeset odstotkov predglagolskih koordiniranih zvez je pokazalo privzeto ujemanje z moško obliko, petindevetdeset odstotkov zaglagolskih koordiniranih samostalniških zvez pa se je ujemalo po načelu najbližje koordinirane prvine. Analiza je bila v največji meri osredinjena na ustreznost ujemanja s koordinirano prvino, ki je najvišje v hierarhiji (HCA). Slednja se je pojavila v sedmih odstotkih oblik, kjer je bil osebek v predglagolskem položaju. Odstotek naraste na 13, če upoštevamo posamezne pogoje. Ujemanje z zadnjo koordinirano prvino pri zaglagolskih osebkih (LCA) pa je bilo prisotno le v enem odstotku primerov, zato smo jih opredelili kot napake v rabi jezika in zavrnili LCA kot ustrezno strategijo ujemanja. Rezultati nasprotujejo študiji Boškovića (2009), ki zavrača HCA kot ustrezno strategijo, potrjujejo pa izsledke Marušiča et al. (2015).

Agreement with coordinated subjects in Slavic languages has recently seen a rapid increase in theoretical and experimental approaches, contributing to a wider theoretical discussion on the locus of agreement in grammar (cf. Marusic, Nevins, and Saksida 2007; Boskovic 2009; Marusic, Nevins, and Badecker 2015). This paper revisits the theoretical predictions proposed for conjunction agreement in a group of South Slavic languages, with a special focus on gender agreement. The paper is based on two experiments involving speakers of Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS) and Slovenian (Sln). Experiment 1 is an elicited production experiment investigating preverbal-conjunct agreement, while Experiment 2 investigates postverbal-conjunct agreement. The data provide experimental evidence discriminating between syntax proper and distributed-agreement models in terms of their ability to account for preverbal highest-conjunct agreement and present a theoretical mechanism for the distinction between default agreement (which has a fixed number and gender, independent of the value of each conjunct) and resolved agreement (which computes number and gender based on the values of each conjunct and must resolve potential conflicts). Focusing on the variability in the gender-agreement ratio across nine combinations, the experimental results for BCS and Sln morphosyntax challenge the notion of gender markedness that is generally posited for South Slavic languages.

Naknadno.