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This contrasts with nominative–accusative languages such as English, where the single argument of an intransitive verb and the agent of a transitive verb (both called the subject) are treated alike and kept distinct from the object of a transitive verb. Such languages are said to operate with S/A (syntactic) pivot.
ka tama-ŋɔ river-prox. in- ka this ka tama- ā -ŋɔ river-pl-prox. in- ka - ā these ka tama-ŋɔ in- ka / ka tama- ā -ŋɔ in- ka - ā river-prox. this / river-pl-prox. these In this example, what is copied is not a prefix, but rather the initial syllable of the head "river". By language Languages can have no conventional agreement whatsoever, as in Japanese or Malay ; barely any, as in ...
This generally applies only to subject-verb agreement; pronominal agreement is by its nature long-distance, and so the concept of "closest" makes less sense in this case. If using "general agreement" and there is a disagreement among properties (e.g. some male, some female), either:
Subject-Verb Agreement in English. Add languages. ... Download QR code; Print/export Download as PDF; Printable version;
Subject + Verb (transitive) + Indirect Object + Direct Object Example: She made me a pie. This clause pattern is a derivative of S+V+O, transforming the object of a preposition into an indirect object of the verb, as the example sentence in transformational grammar is actually "She made a pie for me".
As a practical matter, Modern English typically uses a copula verb (a form of be) or an auxiliary verb with not. If no other auxiliary verb is present, then dummy auxiliary do (does, did) is normally introduced – see do-support. For example, (8) a. I have gone (affirmative) b. I have not gone (negative; have is the auxiliary) (9) a. He goes ...
Subject–verb agreement [ edit ] In British English (BrE), collective nouns can take either singular ( formal agreement ) or plural ( notional agreement ) verb forms, according to whether the emphasis is on the body as a whole or on the individual members respectively; compare a committee was appointed with the committee were unable to agree .
While it is less common to do so, one sometimes extends this reasoning to subject arguments: [8] He wiped the counter. – He is the subject complement of the verb wiped. She scoured the tub. – She is the subject complement of the verb scoured. In those examples, the subject and object arguments are taken to be complements.