An Agree-based Analysis of Nominal Agreement: Evidence from Hindi-Urdu

Abstract

There are two different ways of understanding DP-internal agreement: Either as a result of an independent feature sharing mechanism, or as a consequence of the same Agree-based mechanism that explains verbal agreement. This paper makes an empirical argument in favour of an Agree-based account of nominal agreement: the operation Agree explains the diverse empirical facts found in nominal agreement, and it is sensitive to the structure of the various modificational relations that exist within the DP. The empirical domain is provided by Hindi-Urdu where adjectives and possession indicating morphemes agree with the head noun of the DP. By exploring these agreement relations in detail, this paper presents a case for analysing nominal agreement as arising out of Agree - the same operation that is understood to underlie verbal agreement.