Number Mismatches in Coordination: An LFG Analysis

In some languages, including Russian and Italian, it is possible for a plural noun to be modified by two or more coordinated singular adjectives. At the same time, it is possible for a singular noun to be modified by two or more coordinated singular adjectives, but for the reference of the noun phrase to be plural, rather than singular. We provide a formal analysis of these problematic agreement phenomena, making use of the distinction between INDEX and CONCORD agreement features, and the distinction between distributive and non-distributive features. We propose that the distributivity or non-distributivity of a feature may vary not only between different languages, but even on a construction-by-construction basis within a language. Specifically, CONCORD is a non-distributive feature in certain constructions in languages like Russian and Italian.