The syntax of hierarchy effects

Cross-linguistically, a number of different constructions are sensitive to the position of a nominal argument—or the relative ranking of two or more nominal arguments—along with some proposed feature hierarchies (e.g., 1>2>3 for person, PL>SG for number, ANIM>INAN for animacy). In some environments, certain combinations of nominals may require special forms, while in other cases, specific “hierarchy-violating” combinations may simply be ineffable. In this course we will dig into the research in this area, using hierarchy effects as a window to shed light on some foundational issues in syntactic theory, including phi-features and feature organization, agreement and Agree, cliticization, as well as nominal licensing.