Subject Verb Agreement: Agreement with Conjoined Subjects

Agreement with conjoined subjects

Agreement is complicated with subjects consisting of conjoined NPs. In VSO

word order, the verb agrees only with the first conjunct. Which means that, the NP in

VSO is given a check feature of the first conjunct. Then the coordination template

checks for this feature. If it is found the whole conjunction is given the same features

as the first conjunct (Attia.2010).

كتبت البنت والولد الرسالة

Katabat albintu w-alwaladu al-risalta

Wrote.fem.sg.3 the-girl.fem.sg and-the-boy.masc.sg the –letter

On the other hand in sentences with SVO word order, the verb agrees with the

whole conjoined set rather than just one of its conjunct. The whole set agreement

follows some rules. First, gender; the whole NP is masculine unless all conjuncts are

feminine nouns, in which case it is feminine.

Second, person;

• 1st if any NP is in the 1st person

• 2nd if any NP is in the 2nd person

• Otherwise the person is 3rd

Finally, number: The whole NP is plural unless there are only two

conjuncts and both are singular, in which case the whole NP is

dual.

البنت وامها كتبتا الرساله

Al-bintu w-ummu-ha katabta al-risalta

The-girl.fem.sg and-mother.fem.sg 3.fem.pl the-letter

Differences&similarties between subject verb agreement in English and Arabic:

1- In English SV orders show full agreement between subject and verb , while Arabic's VS orders show only partial agreement.

2- According to Aleya (1992. p.61) ''The doubled subject pronouns are a reflex of Arabic subject-verb agreement system. Which requires the v...

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... singular and all plural verbs usually do not '' . In the past tense all different subjects agree with the same verb by adding -ed at the end of the base verb for the regular verb and also take the same irregular one.

There is two ways one can make an error with this rule are by:

1-Not correctly identifying what the subject of the verb is.

2- Making a mistake about whether the subject is singular or plural.

For Arabic it is being discovered that it has two kinds of agreement. Full agreement

For the VSO word order and partial agreement for the SVO word order. Also, Arabic

verbs show agreement in number (singular, plural, dual),gender(masculine,

feminine), and person (1st 2nd ,3rd), as well as in mood. Moreover, there are three

kinds of agreement that occur in Arabic (verbal agreement, word order agreement and

agreement with conjoined subjects).