Strategies of participle agreement with conjoined subjects in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian

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 wh...

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Main Authors: Nedžad Leko, Nermina Čordalija, Ivana Jovović, Nevenka Marijanović, Lidija Perković, Dženana Telalagić, Amra Bešić, Midhat Šaljić
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: University of Ljubljana Press (Založba Univerze v Ljubljani) 2016-12-01
Series:Linguistica
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.uni-lj.si/linguistica/article/view/7205
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author Nedžad Leko
Nermina Čordalija
Ivana Jovović
Nevenka Marijanović
Lidija Perković
Dženana Telalagić
Amra Bešić
Midhat Šaljić
author_facet Nedžad Leko
Nermina Čordalija
Ivana Jovović
Nevenka Marijanović
Lidija Perković
Dženana Telalagić
Amra Bešić
Midhat Šaljić
author_sort Nedžad Leko
collection DOAJ
description 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).
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spelling doaj.art-3e913c0248dd41dd9fbe97a8c3522fae2023-01-18T09:49:47ZdeuUniversity of Ljubljana Press (Založba Univerze v Ljubljani)Linguistica0024-39222350-420X2016-12-0156110.4312/linguistica.56.1.173-191Strategies of participle agreement with conjoined subjects in Bosnian/Croatian/SerbianNedžad Leko0Nermina ČordalijaIvana Jovović1Nevenka Marijanović2Lidija Perković3Dženana Telalagić4Amra Bešić5Midhat Šaljić6University of SarajevoUniversity of SarajevoUniversity of SarajevoUniversity of SarajevoUniversity of SarajevoUniversity of SarajevoUniversity of SarajevoIn 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).https://journals.uni-lj.si/linguistica/article/view/7205conjunctionclosest-conjunct agreementfirst-conjunct agreementexperimental syntax
spellingShingle Nedžad Leko
Nermina Čordalija
Ivana Jovović
Nevenka Marijanović
Lidija Perković
Dženana Telalagić
Amra Bešić
Midhat Šaljić
Strategies of participle agreement with conjoined subjects in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian
Linguistica
conjunction
closest-conjunct agreement
first-conjunct agreement
experimental syntax
title Strategies of participle agreement with conjoined subjects in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian
title_full Strategies of participle agreement with conjoined subjects in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian
title_fullStr Strategies of participle agreement with conjoined subjects in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian
title_full_unstemmed Strategies of participle agreement with conjoined subjects in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian
title_short Strategies of participle agreement with conjoined subjects in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian
title_sort strategies of participle agreement with conjoined subjects in bosnian croatian serbian
topic conjunction
closest-conjunct agreement
first-conjunct agreement
experimental syntax
url https://journals.uni-lj.si/linguistica/article/view/7205
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