Agreement with coordinated subjects in Slavic languages has recently seen a rapid increase in theoretical and experimental approaches, contributing to a wider theoretical discussion on the locus of agreement in grammar (cf. Marušič et al. 2007, Bošković 2009, Marušič et al. 2015). In this paper, we revisit the theoretical predictions proposed for conjunction agreement in a group of South Slavic languages, with a special focus on gender agreement. The paper is based on two experiments involving speakers of Bosnian/ Croatian/ Serbian (B/C/S) and Slovenian (Slov). Experiment 1 is an elicited production experiment investigating preverbal conjunct agreement, while Experiment 2 investigates postverbal conjunct agreement. The data provide experimental evidence discriminating between syntax proper and distributed agreement models in terms of their ability to account for preverbal Highest-Conjunct agreement, and present the need for a distinction between Default agreement (which has a fixed number and gender, independent of the value of each conjunct) and Resolved agreement (which computes number and gender based on the values of each conjunct, and must resolve potential conflicts). Focusing on the variability in gender agreement ratio across nine combinations, the experimental results for B/C/S and Slov morphosyntax challenge the notion of Gender markedness generally posited for South Slavic languages.

SignificanceSyntactic distance is standardly measured hierarchically only by counting the nodes in a tree-like structure. The dominance of hierarchy over the other logically possible measure of distance—e.g., counting words in a linear order—stems from a large body of research. We show a strong preference for the linear strategy in coordination structures in South Slavic languages, with a design comparing agreement controllers that can come either before or after their target. A large-scale study over six geographically and linguistically distinct varieties discovered remarkable uniformity in this preference. Variation discovered was mostly intraindividual, strongly suggesting that a language can entertain synchronous “multiple grammars,” the most striking of which is the one requiring direct reference to linear order.