Jouitteau & Rezac (2006)

• Jouitteau, M. and M. Rezac 2006. 'Deriving Complementarity Effects', R. Borsley, I. Roberts, L. Sadler & D. Willis (éds.), Lingua 116, special issue on Celtic Languages, 1915-1945.

lingBuzz/000066

 summary:
 
 Breton φ-agreement is characterized by the Complementarity Effect, which allows 
 pro-dropped but not lexical DPs to control φ-agreement. We contrast verbal and 
 prepositional systems: a lexical DP co-occurs with the root form of a preposition, 
 but with a 3rd.sg. (frozen agreement) form of a verb. We argue that frozen agreement 
 arises through φ-relativized locality: the Breton vP independently shows nominal 
 properties, and thus intervenes for agreement. The φ-probe of T Agrees with the vP 
 for 3rd.sg. rather than the vP-internal subject. In the prepositional system on the 
 other hand, lexical DPs occur with bare stems and φ-inflection spells out affixed 
 pronouns. 
 
 The mechanics predict that in verbal constructions where the subject originates 
 outside the vP, it is local enough to control the agreement of T, which correctly 
 yields Have under a prepositional analysis as the sole verb immune to the 
 Complementarity Effect. Finally, we propose a typology of Complementarity Effects 
 in agreement depending on the interaction of intervention (frozen agreement) and 
 syntactic incorporation past the intervener.