Coordination, agreement, and determiner typology

Abstract

In this paper, first, we have examined five types of D-N agreement found in different languages that were reported in King and Dalrymple 2002/2003 and Heycock and Zamparelli 2003. We have then proposed a typology of determiners in terms of [+/- multiple variable binding] adopting and extending Higginbotham and May`s (1981) operator typology. Lastly, then, we have reviewed two recent proposals and have shown their descriptive inadequacy, which seems to be overcome by the determiner typology based on [+/- multiple variable binding]. Remaining questions will include, first, how we could deal with additional specific facts, e.g., those discussed in Heycock and Zamparelli (2003), second, whether the determiner typology based on [+/- multiple variable binding] can be incorporated into either of King and Dalrymple`s (2002/2003) and Heycock and Zamparelli`s (2003) system to remove their descriptive inadequacy, and third, whether the determiner typology will apply to cross-linguistic properties of adverbs of quantification and other operators like WH or C[+wh] as alluded in Pesetsky (2000). If this analysis is on the right track, we may say that linguistic variation in D-N agreement is also restricted to the lexical properties of functional categories, supporting Borer (1984) and Chomsky (1995).