The Phenomenon of Agreement through the Lens of HPSGin Modern Standard Arabic

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to provide a syntactic analysis of the phenomenon of agreement in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) under the umbrella of HPSG (Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar). Two types of agreement have been investigated: CONCORD agreement and INDEX agreement. The former covers the features of NUMBER, GENDER, and CASE while the latter covers PERSON, NUMBER, and GENDER. These agreement types are represented as features in HPSG. Different word orders in MSA can influence the way phrases are analyzed in HPSG called agreement asymmetry. Specifically, subject-verb agreement asymmetry. HPSG accounts for such asymmetry in MSA through the phenomenon of improvised agreement where Beller (2007) suggests a new constraint labeled Argument Structure Agreement Principle (ASAP). This particular constraint groups the features of PERSON and GENDER to be a single subtype (PG) of the feature AGR. Therefore, the verbs will be demanded to have the same PG feature as that of its first argument.