Agreement plays a pivotal role in the generative theory of natural language. More recently, the minimalist paradigm suggests positing a separate operation: Agree – for agreement, alongside Merge – the recursive structure building operation, and Move – the displacement operation in grammar. Though Agree, it would seem, is well-supported by ample empirical data, there is reason to doubt the existence of such an operation in grammar. The advent of minimalism in linguistic theory necessitates doubting all attributes of the language faculty that seem unique to it. If language is part of...
Agreement plays a pivotal role in the generative theory of natural language. More recently, the minimalist paradigm suggests positing a separate opera...