Universal #427
Legacy number: 427
| Number | 426 |
| Original | It holds both for gender and number that if any constituent in a language shows agreement in these property types, some anaphoric pronoun always does. |
| Standardized | IF any constituent other than anaphoric pronouns agrees in gender and/or number, THEN anaphoric pronouns agree in gender and/or number. |
| Formula | agreement in gender & number (any constituent) ⇒ agreement in gender & number (anaphoric pronoun) |
| Keywords | agreement, gender, number, anaphoric pronoun |
| Domain | inflection, syntax |
| Type | implication |
| Status | achronic but presumably diachronically motivated |
| Quality | absolute |
| Basis | languages mentioned in Moravcsik 1978b |
| Source | inferred from Moravcsik 1978b: 350 |
Discussion
Counterexamples
Teop (N.W. Solomonic, Oceanic, Austronesian) (Mosel & Spriggs 2000) does not have gender in pronouns but it does in articles preceding nouns, adjectives, and numerals (as such a counterexample to ##518 and 256). Adjectives and numerals agree with their head nouns (i.e., the article is set twice). <WS>Turkana (Nilotic, Nilo-Saharan) (Dimmendaal 1983), also violating ##518 and 256, shows NP-internal gender agreement as well. <WS>
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