Common use of Agreement Hierarchy Clause in Contracts

Agreement Hierarchy. The Agreement Hierarchy is a hierarchy of agreement positions postulated on the basis of data collected from a variety of languages that allow alternative agreements (ibid.). AH facilitates predictions about the likelihood of occurrence of syntactic or semantic agreements in a given target position: attributive > predicate > relative pronoun > personal pronoun The four positions indicate the domain where the agreement occurs: within the noun phrase, within the clause, within the sentence, and beyond the sentence. The AH imposes the following constraint on possible agreement patterns: For any controller that permits alternative agreements, as we move rightwards along the Agreement Hierarchy, the likelihood of agreement with greater semantic justification will increase monotonically (that is, with no intervening decrease). (▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ 2006:207) 2.2.1. The hybrid controller величество ‘majesty’ permits alternative agreements: we find syntactic agreement in the attributive position [2b] and semantic agreement in the predicative position [3b]. Let us further observe the AH effect by looking at examples of agreement in the target positions further to the right of the hierarchy: [14] Relative pronoun 3SG.POSS.F majesty(N) ▇▇▇-▇.▇▇ never NEG обнаруживала удаления от справедливого и ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇-▇▇▇-▇.▇▇ withdrawal from fair CONJ разумного мира с королём прусским не зна-ет reasonable peace CONJ king prussian NEG know-3SG до until сего this дня day самого the.most главного important … ‘Her majesty, who has never considered withdrawing from peace with the Prussian king, to this day does not know the most crucial thing…’ (Soloviev Istorija Rossii s Drevnejschich Vremen 2017) Here we can see semantic feminine agreement expressed on the relative pronoun которая via the inflectional suffix -ая. As the hybrid controller величество ‘majesty’ has already been shown to permit semantic agreement in the predicative position [3b], the occurrence of semantic agreement in the relative pronoun position is no surprise and is in accord with the AH. [15] Personal pronoun9 Ее 3SG.POSS.F Величество majesty(N) плохо перенос-ит poorly tolerate-3SG путешествияпо travelling by воде water | И она очень сетова-л-а по поводу того, что в CONJ 3SG.F very ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇-▇▇▇-▇.▇▇ for reason such that in England autumnalways bad weather (▇▇▇▇▇▇ Lady on the Coin 1995 (Russian Translation by ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇)) While it is impossible to say whether the predicate verb переносит ‘tolerates’ agrees with the controller syntactically or semantically, since Russian verbs do not show gender in the present tense, it is clear that the personal pronoun она is feminine and thus agrees with the formally neuter controller величество ‘majesty’ semantically. At this point, all the necessary notions required for the theoretical embedding of the central phenomenon of this thesis are introduced. So far, most of the examples with semantic agreement we have encountered (with the exception of those from Section 2.2.3) involved hybrids and demonstrated mismatches with regard to gender. What unites these examples is that the source of agreement choice is encapsulated in the hybrid’s lexical entry, i.e. within the controller (▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ forthcoming). In other words, the information needed to infer the choice of agreement is contained locally. The phenomenon of honorific agreement, which is about to be introduced in the next section, differs from semantic agreement with hybrids in two major ways: it exhibits agreement mismatches with regard to number, not to gender, and the source of agreement choice cannot be found within the controller, rather, it is extraneous (ibid.).

Agreement Hierarchy. The Agreement Hierarchy is a hierarchy of agreement positions postulated on the basis of data collected from a variety of languages that allow alternative agreements (ibid.). AH facilitates predictions about the likelihood of occurrence of syntactic or semantic agreements in a given target position: attributive > predicate > relative pronoun > personal pronoun The four positions indicate the domain where the agreement occurs: within the noun phrase, within the clause, within the sentence, and beyond the sentence. The AH imposes the following constraint on possible agreement patterns: For any controller that permits alternative agreements, as we move rightwards along the Agreement Hierarchy, the likelihood of agreement with greater semantic justification will increase monotonically (that is, with no intervening decrease). (▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ 2006:207) 2.2.1. The hybrid controller величество ‘majesty’ permits alternative agreements: we find syntactic agreement in the attributive position [2b] and semantic agreement in the predicative position [3b]. Let us further observe the AH effect by looking at examples of agreement in the target positions further to the right of the hierarchy: [14] Relative pronoun 3SG.POSS.F majesty(N) ▇▇▇-▇.▇▇ never NEG обнаруживала удаления от справедливого и ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇-▇▇▇-▇.▇▇ withdrawal from fair CONJ разумного мира с королём прусским не зна-ет reasonable peace CONJ king prussian NEG know-3SG до until сего this дня day самого the.most главного important … ‘Her majesty, who has never considered withdrawing from peace with the Prussian king, to this day does not know the most crucial thing…’ (Soloviev Istorija Rossii s Drevnejschich Vremen 2017) Here we can see semantic feminine agreement expressed on the relative pronoun которая via the inflectional suffix -ая. As the hybrid controller величество ‘majesty’ has already been shown to permit semantic agreement in the predicative position [3b], the occurrence of semantic agreement in the relative pronoun position is no surprise and is in accord with the AH. [15] Personal pronoun9 Ее 3SG.POSS.F Величество majesty(N) плохо перенос-ит poorly tolerate-3SG путешествияпо travelling by воде water | И она очень сетова-л-а по поводу того, что в ▇ CONJ 3SG.F very ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇-▇▇▇-▇.▇▇ for reason such that in England autumnalways bad weather (▇▇▇▇▇▇ Lady on the Coin 1995 (Russian Translation by ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇)) While it is impossible to say whether the predicate verb переносит ‘tolerates’ agrees with the controller syntactically or semantically, since Russian verbs do not show gender in the present tense, it is clear that the personal pronoun она is feminine and thus agrees with the formally neuter controller величество ‘majesty’ semantically. At this point, all the necessary notions required for the theoretical embedding of the central phenomenon of this thesis are introduced. So far, most of the examples with semantic agreement we have encountered (with the exception of those from Section 2.2.3) involved hybrids and demonstrated mismatches with regard to gender. What unites these examples is that the source of agreement choice is encapsulated in the hybrid’s lexical entry, i.e. within the controller (▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ forthcoming). In other words, the information needed to infer the choice of agreement is contained locally. The phenomenon of honorific agreement, which is about to be introduced in the next section, differs from semantic agreement with hybrids in two major ways: it exhibits agreement mismatches with regard to number, not to gender, and the source of agreement choice cannot be found within the controller, rather, it is extraneous (ibid.).