Differential Object Marking in Hungarian and the Morphosyntax of Case and Agreement
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Differential object marking in Hungarian and the morphosyntax of case and agreement András Bárány Downing College, University of Cambridge November 2015 This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Voor ⴰⵎⵓⵛⵛ Contents Declaration ix Acknowledgements xi Abbreviations xiii List of Tables xv List of Figures xvii 1 DOM, case and agreement 1 1.1 Introduction .................................... 1 1.2 Differential object marking ........................... 2 1.3 Person features and hierarchies ........................ 5 1.3.1 Hierarchies and functional approaches to DOM ......... 9 1.4 Case and agreement ............................... 10 1.5 Theoretical assumptions ............................. 14 1.5.1 Cyclic Agree ............................... 14 1.5.2 Agree can fail .............................. 17 1.5.3 Syntax and morphology ........................ 18 1.6 The sample of languages ............................ 21 Part I Differential object marking in Hungarian 23 2 DOM in Hungarian 25 2.1 Introduction: Hungarian object agreement ................. 25 v Contents 2.2 The distribution of object agreement ..................... 27 2.2.1 Direct objects and subject agreement ................ 28 2.2.2 Direct objects that trigger object agreement ............ 33 2.2.3 “Unexpected” object agreement ................... 43 2.3 Summary ...................................... 45 3 A hybrid analysis of object agreement: syntactic structure and π-features 47 3.1 Introduction .................................... 47 3.2 Towards an analysis ............................... 48 3.2.1 Problems for semantic approaches ................. 48 3.2.2 Problems for syntactic approaches ................. 50 3.2.3 Syntactic structure and person features .............. 53 3.3 Evidence from possessive noun phrases in Hungarian .......... 58 3.3.1 Types of possessors: nominative, dative, pronominal ...... 58 3.3.2 Non-specific possessives and dative possessors .......... 61 3.3.3 Possessed noun phrases and object agreement .......... 63 3.3.4 The structure of possessed noun phrases .............. 65 3.3.5 Possessed direct objects in Standard Hungarian ......... 69 3.3.6 Conclusions: syntactic structure and person features ...... 75 3.4 An implementation of object agreement ................... 76 3.4.1 Object agreement and person features ............... 76 3.4.2 Deriving agreement .......................... 79 3.4.3 Putting the pieces together: agreement in the clause ...... 91 3.4.4 Interim summary ............................ 93 3.5 Conclusions .................................... 94 4 Agreement with personal pronouns 97 4.1 Introduction .................................... 97 4.2 Object agreement with personal pronouns ................. 98 4.2.1 The distribution of object agreement with personal pronouns . 101 4.3 Deriving inverse agreement in Hungarian .................. 106 4.3.1 Arguments for covert agreement .................. 115 4.3.2 Third person arguments ........................ 119 vi Contents 4.3.3 Interim summary ............................ 121 4.4 Spelling out agreement ............................. 122 4.4.1 Hungarian verb morphology and spell-out rules ......... 123 4.4.2 Revised spell-out rules ......................... 130 4.4.3 Verbal agreement and possessive suffixes ............. 132 4.4.4 Further issues in verb morphology ................. 136 4.4.5 Interim summary ............................ 139 4.5 Comparison to other analyses of object agreement ............ 139 4.5.1 Agreement with third person objects ................ 140 4.5.2 Agreement with first, second, and third person objects ..... 141 4.5.3 Inclusive reference, again ....................... 146 4.5.4 Interim summary ............................ 151 4.6 Summary and conclusions ........................... 151 4.A Appendix: Full derivations ........................... 152 4.A.1 Direct configuration .......................... 152 4.A.2 Inverse configuration ......................... 154 4.A.3 Two third person arguments ..................... 155 Part II Case and agreement in the grammar 159 5 Inverse agreement and global case splits 161 5.1 Introduction .................................... 161 5.2 Case studies: Inverse agreement and global case splits .......... 164 5.2.1 Kashmiri ................................. 164 5.2.2 Sahaptin ................................. 167 5.3 Case assignment and cyclicity ......................... 168 5.3.1 case features, Case assignment and impoverishment ...... 174 5.4 Analysis ...................................... 177 5.4.1 Global case splits on subject and object .............. 178 5.4.2 Global case splits and animacy .................... 189 5.4.3 Crossing the distinction between direct and inverse ....... 199 5.5 Discussion and conclusions ........................... 211 5.5.1 Other approaches to global case splits ............... 211 vii Contents 5.5.2 Functional heads and probes ..................... 215 5.5.3 Conclusions ............................... 216 6 Case and agreement in the grammar 217 6.1 Introduction .................................... 217 6.2 Case, agreement and Bobaljik’s generalisations .............. 218 6.2.1 Hindi and Nepali ............................ 219 6.2.2 Bobalijk’s generalisations ....................... 220 6.2.3 Marathi .................................. 223 6.3 Analysis ...................................... 225 6.3.1 Theoretical assumptions ........................ 226 6.3.2 Case and case features ........................ 227 6.3.3 Deriving agreement in Hindi, Nepali and Marathi ........ 230 6.3.4 Languages with two φ-probes .................... 243 6.3.5 Splits between one and two probes ................. 252 6.3.6 A language with three φ-probes: Kashmiri ............ 257 6.4 Conclusions .................................... 262 7 Parameters of DOM 265 7.1 A hierarchical approach to parameters .................... 265 7.2 Cross-linguistic variation in DOM ...................... 267 7.2.1 Modelling dependencies ........................ 269 7.3 Conclusions — Parameters of DOM? ..................... 272 8 Conclusions 275 Bibliography 277 Author index 297 viii Declaration This dissertation is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is theout- come of work done in collaboration except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. It is not substantially the same as any that I have submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for a degree or diploma or other qualification at the University ofCambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and spe- cified in the text. I further state that no substantial part of my dissertation hasalready been submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for any such degree, diplomaor other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University ofsimilar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. It does not exceed the prescribed word limit for the relevant Degree Committee. ix Acknowledgements The research reported in this dissertation was funded by the European Research Coun- cil Advanced Grant No. 269752 “Rethinking Comparative Syntax” (ReCoS). My deep- est gratitude goes to my fellow members on this project. First, to my supervisors Ian Roberts, Theresa Biberauer and Michelle Sheehan. I have learned an incredible amount from each one of you and I am very grateful for everything — I could not have had a better team of supervisors. Other members of ReCoS might not have read, commented on and re-read all parts of this dissertation, but I have received a great amount of support from everyone. Thanks to Jenneke van der Wal, for always being helpful, uplifting, motivating, fun and a little bit crazy. Thanks to Georg Höhn for many, many conversations and for listening toand commenting on many of my half-baked ideas. Thanks to Alison Biggs and Tim Bazal- gette for sharing their wisdom when I started in Cambridge and for being excellent role-models in many ways. And thanks to Anders Holmberg for further inspiration, and bringing another Finno-Ugric language to ReCoS. I am very happy to have been able to work with all of you over the past three years. Dora Alexopoulou and Adam Ledgeway helped me get on track in my first year in Cambridge, and Adam has been an encouraging and motivating advisor since. Visitors and part-time members of ReCoS whose company and input over the years I appreci- ated a lot are Sten Vikner, Maia Duguine, Aritz Irurtzun, and Gereon Müller, who were guests at one time or another (or at one time and another, like Sten). ReCoS also generously allowed me to spend time away from Cambridge, travelling to conferences and summer schools. I want to thank Katalin É. Kiss, Anna Szabolcsi, Laura Kalin, and Jaklin Kornfilt for valuable discussions at various places. Iamalso grateful to Klaus von Heusinger for welcoming me at the University of Cologne for a few months, and to Martine Grice, who let me work in her department. And thanks to Umut Özge, who was a great office mate. xi Acknowledgements But what’s writing a dissertation without the company of other PhD students? I am grateful to Eleni Savva for countless linguistic and non-linguistic conversations and for organising a Christmas party with me that some would call legendary (others would call it something else), and to Anna Jespersen, because we talked about the things that really matter, like rodent vocalisation, hangovers and cats in party hats doing Praat. I’ll miss you guys!