Partial agreement with subjects linked by a correlative conjunction: A corpus-based study of main regularities.

In this paper we discuss the phenomenon of partial agreement with coordinated subjects; that is, a strategy when a verb agrees with just one of the conjuncts. The factors which underlie the possibility of partial agreement are discussed for coordinate constructions with the Russian correlative conjunctions i…i, ni…ni, ili…ili, to…to. We argue that the choice between the standard and the partial agreement strategy, as well as, in the latter case, the linear order of subject and verb, determine the interpretation of the coordinate phrase in terms of the semantics of plurality.