Universal #179
Legacy number: 179
| Number | 179 |
| Original | There is a hierarchy: Number > Gender > Case, such that if some target agrees in one category on the hierarchy then it will also agree in all categories higher on the hierarchy. |
| Standardized | IF a target agrees in Case, THEN it also agrees in Number and Gender. IF a target agrees in Gender, THEN it also agrees in Number. |
| Formula | agreement in Case ⇒ agreement in Gender ⇒ agreement in Number |
| Keywords | agreement, number, case, gender, target |
| Domain | inflection, syntax |
| Type | implicational hierarchy |
| Status | achronic |
| Quality | a Euroversal rather than a universal |
| Basis | European languages |
| Source | Linfer 1992 |
Discussion
Counterexamples
Dutch (W. Germanic, Indo-European): adjectives agree in gender but not in number (Hurford & Kirby).Persian (Iranian, Indo-European), Arabic (W. Semitic, Afro-Asiatic), Hungarian (Ugric, Uralic), Turkish (Turkic, Altaic): intensifiers agree in case and number (and person) but not in gender (P. Siemund, p.c.).In West Greenlandic (Eskimo-Aleut) and in Hopi (Uto-Aztecan) demonstratives agree in case and number but not in gender (Plank 1994a: 56). Earlier Egyptian (Afro-Asiatic): adnominal adjectives agree in gender but feminines show (at least in written language) no distinction of singular and plural forms.Coptic (Egyptian, Afro-Asiatic): most adjectives do not agree any longer with their head nouns. Among the exceptions are some distinguishing a masculine and a feminine form but not number. (F. Kammerzell, p.c.)
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