Wh-agreement

Wh-agreement refers to morphological changes triggered by wh-movement, usually in verbs or complementisers.[1] It occurs in a number of Bantu languages,[2][3] Austronesian languages including Chamorro and Palauan, Algonquin languages such as Ojibwe,[4] as well as Hausa, French, Scottish Gaelic, and Irish.[5]

For example, in Chamorro, the infix -um- (labelled "WH[nom]") is attached to the verb to mark agreement with the nominative question phrase following subject extraction:[6]

(1) Ha-fa'gasi si Juan i kareta.
3sSA[lower-alpha 1]-wash PND[lower-alpha 2] Juan the car
'Juan washed the car.'
(2) Hayi fuma'gasi i kareta?
who? WH[nom].wash the car
'Who washed the car?'

Additionally, some languages have distinct agreement morphology depending on the case of element being moved.[1] In the case of object extraction in Chamorro, the verb fa'gasi instead becomes fina’gasése (marked with "WH[obj]"):

(3) Hafai fina’gasése-nña si Juan pära hagu?
what WH[obj].wash.Prog-agr Juan for you
‘What is Juan washing for you?’

In French and Scottish Gaelic, special complementisers are used in cases of wh-movement:[5]

(4) Tu as dit que le livre était tombé
you have said that the book had fallen
‘You said that the book had fallen.’
(5) Qu'est-ce que tu as dit qui était tombé
what-is-this that you have said that.AGR was fallen
‘Who did you say had fallen?’

Notes
  1. 3rd singular Subject Agreement
  2. "Proper Noun Determiner", a special article used with names in Chamorro.

References
  1. A. Watanabe (6 December 2012). Case Absorption and WH-Agreement. Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. 37. Springer, Dordrecht. p. 170–1. doi:10.1007/978-94-015-8615-3_4. ISBN 978-94-015-8615-3.
  2. McDaniel, Dana (29 August 2018). "Long-distance extraction attraction: A production-based account of an unexpected cross-linguistic structure". Glossa. 3 (1): 95. doi:10.5334/gjgl.712. ISSN 2397-1835.
  3. Zentz, Jason. Kramer, Ruth (ed.). "Bantu Wh-agreement and the Case against Probe Impoverishment" (PDF). Selected Proceedings of the 44th Annual Conference on African Linguistics: 290–301.
  4. Lochbihler, B.; Mathieu, E. (2013). "Wh-agreement in Ojibwe relative clauses: Evidence for CP Structure". The Canadian Journal of Linguistics. 58 (2): 293–318. doi:10.1017/S0008413100003042.
  5. http://artsites.uottawa.ca/eajmathieu/doc/Lochbihler_Mathieu.pdf
  6. Sandra Chung (November 1998). The Design of Agreement: Evidence from Chamorro. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-10607-6.
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