Alliterative agreement

An agreement construction is called alliterative agreement if the agreement marker on the target is identical to a formative on the controller, and if different targets all show the same formative (Corbett 2006:15-17).

Example

Swahili

• ki-kapu ki-kubwa ki-moja ki-li-anguka
• 7/8.SG-basket 7-large 7-one 7-past-fall
• 'One large basket fell.' (Welmers 1973:171)

Comments

The term alliterative agreement is really appropriate only for prefixal agreement markers (see alliteration), but Corbett (2006:15-17, 87-90) also extends it to other markers, following Dobrin (1995).

Synonym

• allterative concord (Dobrin 1995)

References

• Corbett, Greville G. 2006. Agreement. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Dobrin, Lise M. 1995. "Theoretical consequences of literal alliterative concord." Chicago Linguistic Society 31, vol. I, 127-142.
• Welmers 1973