Polite Plurals and Predicate Agreement.

Comrie, Bernard

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Peer reviewed

ERIC Number: EJ119510

Record Type: Journal

Publication Date: 1975

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Polite Plurals and Predicate Agreement

Comrie, Bernard

Language, 51, 2, 406-418, Jun 75

Data from a number of language (Slavic, Romance, Modern Greek) concerning predicate agreement with the polite plural (semantically singular, but plural in surface structure) suggest that more verb-like predicates tend to agree with the surface subject, while more noun-like predicates tend to agree with the underlying subject. (Author/KM)

Descriptors: Adjectives, Deep Structure, Generative Grammar, Greek, Nouns, Romance Languages, Semantics, Slavic Languages, Surface Structure, Verbs

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