Full agreement with coordinate subjects in Polish: Gender resolution rules revisited

  • Anna Prażmowska The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Faculty of Humanities
Keywords: agreement; animacy; coordination; gender; Polish

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to propose a set of revised gender resolution rules for Polish, based on an interplay between gender and animacy features of conjuncts, which makes a coordinate subject eligible for a given variant of gender agreement with the predicate. Specifically, it is argued that both gender and animacy features of conjuncts can make a coordinate subject eligible for virile or non-virile agreement, or both. The resolution is achieved by the application of a set of four rules capitalising on certain semantic features of conjuncts and the interaction between them within a coordinate subject. The application of the rules restricts agreement possibilities to either virile or non-virile agreement, or makes both possibilities available for a given coordinate subject. In consequence, the proposed revised gender resolution rules have a capacity to capture data that are problematic under the traditional resolution rules for Polish.

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Published
2019-10-23
Section
Articles