Jaume Solà i Pujols - Departament de Filologia Catalana ...

(112) a. Partitive DPs do not have person features. 93
b. Partitive DPs may/may not have (grammatical) number features.
c. AGR and Spec of AGR need not agree in number features when person features
are not present.
d. A binds B if A c-/m-commands B and A and B share some phi features.
The parameter in 0.b) is intended to account for the variation languages seem to exhibit
with respect to agreement with an indefinite:
(113) Agreement in number:
a. There are children in the garden (Standard English)
b. Es sind Kinder in den Garten (German)
It are children in the garden
c. Ci sono bambini nel giardino (Italian)
there-are children in-the garden
d. Arriben turistes (Standard Catalan)
Arrive tourists
93 This is also assumed in Rigau (1991). Rigau also assumes
that Person Agreement and Number Agreement are different
functional categories. I think this idea could be adopted within
the present theory, but it would require some careful
elaboration, for it is crucial for the present account to work
that AGR o is coindexed with the I-subject, contrary to what
Rigau assumes for partitive constructions: at least Person-
Agreement is not coindexed with the partitive in her view. Here
I contend that there is always coindexation, which may be devoid
of content if the binding features are absent.
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