The role of syncretism in the predicate agreement with coordinate constructions with the Russian correlative conjunction i…i

Abstract

There are two strategies of agreement with coordinate constructions in Russian: standard agreement, in which the predicate takes plural form, and partial agreement in which the predicate agrees with one of the conjuncts. Both subjects having the same gender and number characteristics is one of the factors that make partial agreement more plausible. We explore whether in this case the acceptability of partial agreement is increased due to the syncretism effect. To study this issue, an experimental study was conducted. Our main hypothesis stated that the acceptability of partial agreement will be higher for the stimuli with the conjuncts of the same gender. The Russian correlative conjunction i…i was chosen for the stimuli as its semantic features are similar to the typical ones of constructions with partial agreement. The design included two independent variables (number of predicate and combination of conjuncts’ genders). Likert scale 1–7 was used to measure acceptability. The results show that matching features of conjuncts influence the acceptability of partial agreement in Russian. Although matching features significantly increase the acceptability of partial agreement, this agreement strategy is possible in non-syncretic sentences as well, what makes the observed effect different from the cases of resolution by syncretism. The possibility of partial agreement with coordinate constructions compound of conjuncts of different gender may also be interpreted as an argument in favour of post-syntactic model of agreement.