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. *E-naaj ettōr irooj ro n#an kweilok eo.
3s.agr-T(fut) run chief the.pl.h to meeting the.s
'The chiefs will run to the meeting.'
(34) a. Re-kar būromōj irooj ro ilo pade eo.
3pl.agr-T(past) be.sad chief the.pl.h during party the.s
'The chiefs were sad during the party.'
b. *E-kar būromōj irooj ro ilo pade eo.
3s.agr-T(past) be.sad chief the.pl.h during party the.s
'The chiefs were sad during the party.'
In the case of (33b) and (34b), speakers reported that these sentences were ungrammatical
because the 3s agreement clitic e appears with the plural subject irooj ro 'the chiefs.' In
spite of this fact, there is reason to think that these sentences are grammatical because
these speakers often use the singular agreement clitic with a postverbal plural subject in
spontaneous speech or when translating a sentence from English to Marshallese. The use
of the third singular clitic in spontaneous speech seems to indicate that (33b) and (34b)
are, in fact, grammatical.
Historically, it is possible that number agreement with postverbal subjects is a
rather new development in Marshallese. This fact is hinted at by Zewen when he states
that, while there is no number agreement between postverbal subjects and the agreement
clitic in Marshallese, "contemporary" Marshallese often employs the third person plural
marker with the postverbal plural subject. Thus the data that was taken from older
dialects of Marshallese and that is presented in Erland (1914) and Zewen (1977) may not
have allowed plural agreement with postverbal plural subjects, whereas Marshallese as it
is used today does.
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