Definite Markers, Phi Features and Agreement - Georgetown ...

ABSTRACTDefinite Markers, Phi-Features and Agreement:A Morphosyntactic Investigation of the Amharic DPbyRuth KramerThis dissertation has two inter-related goals: (i) to describe and provide novel analyses ofthree types of important and difficult phenomena within Amharic DPs and (ii) to explore theproperties of the syntax-morphology interface. The core phenomena explicated are the unusualdistribution of the definite marker, the gender system (which relies heavily on natural/biologicalgender), and the plural system (which involves the relations between several distinct types ofplurals). The dissertation shows how these phenomena have important ramifications formorphosyntactic cyclicity, the morphosyntactic treatment of phi-features, and the relationshipbetween the syntax and morphology of agreement.I show that the definite marker is best accounted for in two sub-cases. When obligatory,it is a second position clitic, and when optional, it is the reflex of a definiteness agreementprocess. The operation that places the definite marker in second position is shown to be unableto access previous syntactic cycles, i.e., there is phase impenetrability at PF.The accounts of both gender and number explore the division of labor between little n(the nominalizing head) and the root. I argue that both natural gender and grammatical gendermust be present in the syntax, and propose that grammatical gender is a feature on roots,whereas natural gender is a feature on little n. In the number domain, the differences betweenregular and irregular plurals (and the behavior of double plurals in Amharic) are best analyzed