The Agreement Hierarchy: attributive < predicate < relative pronoun < personal pronoun (i) Possible agreement pattern are constrained as follows: As we move rightwards along the hierarchy, the likelihood of semantic agreement [in gender or number] [with hybrid nouns] will increase monotonically (that is, with no intervening decrease). (ii) Whenever, in a given position on the Agreement Hierarchy there is a difference between the agreements found in the nominative and in the oblique cases, the likelihood of semantic agreement in the nominative will be as high as or higher than the likelihood of semantic agreement in the oblique cases. (iii) When stacked targets of a given controller stand in different agreement forms, the further target will show semantic agreement. (iv) If parallel targets show different agreement forms, then the further target will show semantic agreement. (v) For any particular target type, the further it is removed from its controller, the greater the likelihood of semantic agreement.
Standardized
The Agreement Hierarchy:attributive < predicate < relative pronoun < personal pronoun(i) Possible agreement pattern are constrained as follows: As we move rightwards along the hierarchy, the likelihood of semantic agreement [in gender or number] [with hybrid nouns] will increase monotonically (that is, with no intervening decrease).(ii) Whenever, in a given position on the Agreement Hierarchy there is a difference between the agreements found in the nominative and in the oblique cases, the likelihood of semantic agreement in the nominative will be as high as or higher than the likelihood of semantic agreement in the oblique cases.(iii) When stacked targets of a given controller stand in different agreement forms, the further target will show semantic agreement.(iv) If parallel targets show different agreement forms, then the further target will show semantic agreement.(v) For any particular target type, the further it is removed from its controller, the greater the likelihood of semantic agreement.
1. See #579 for previous version(s).2. Hybrid nouns = nouns [which] take agreement in more than one gender [or number], depending on the target. See Corbett 1991: 257f for reasons for hybridness: “transferred use is an frequent source of hybrid nouns”, i.e. non-human nouns used with human reference or vice versa.3. Further factors potentially involved in choosing between grammatical and semantic agreement are register, sociolinguistic variables, and pragmatic considerations.
1. See #579 for previous version(s).2. Hybrid nouns = nouns [which] take agreement in more than one gender [or number], depending on the target. See Corbett 1991: 257f for reasons for hybridness: “transferred use is an frequent source of hybrid nouns”, i.e. non-human nouns used with human reference or vice versa.3. Further factors potentially involved in choosing between grammatical and semantic agreement are register, sociolinguistic variables, and pragmatic considerations.