Number Agreement Between Verb and Coordinated Subject

Abstract

Agreement phenomena have been considered as one of the most problematic areas in syntax. While this is an indisputable fact, processing-based strategic account (Morgan 1972, Reis 1974, Corbett 1991, Peterson 1986; 2004) has also failed to capture a general fact about the number agreement between verb and coordinated subject. Limiting the discussion to and coordinated NP subjects, this paper discovers that the grammatical number of conjuncts and that of the coordinated NP are correlated: the verb agrees with its coordinated subject as if it is a single plural noun. It is further proposed that semantic properties of the conjuncts also operates on deciding the number of the NP coordination Thus, singular agreement is licensed if the coordination contains singular conjuncts which can be merged into a single semantic property.