Grammatical relations, agreement, and genetic stability

Languages vary in whether or not primary grammatical relations (PGRs) are sensitive to information from clause-level case or phrase structures. This variation correlates with a difference between verb agreement systems based on feature unification and systems based on feature composition. The choice between different PGR and agreement principles is found to be highly stable genetically and to characterize Indo-European as systematically different from Sino-Tibetan. Although the choice is partially similar to the Configurationality Parameter, it is shown that Indo-European languages of South Asia are nonconfigurational due to areal pressure but follow their European relatives in PGR and agreement principles. * Research on this paper was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, Grant No. 8210-053455, 1998 – 2001. I am much indebted to LekhbahÑadur RÑaє and Kenneth Van-Bik for sharing with me their native speaker intuitions about Belhare and Lai Chin, respectively. For help with Indo-Aryan, especially Maithili and Hindi data, many thanks go to YogendraprasÑad YÑadava; for help with Nepali, I thank CÑuŽdÑamaŽni Bandhu and MÑadhavprasÑad Pokharel. In writing up this essay, I profited from discussions on related issues with Jürgen Bohnemeyer, Mirjam Fried, Carol Genetti, Sandy Thompson, and Matt Shibatani, and I am much indebted to all of them. For very helpful comments on an earlier draft, I am grateful to Johanna Nichols. Parts of this paper were presented at the 20th South Asian Languages Analysis Roundtable, July 9 11, 1999 in Urbana-Champaign, and I thank the audience for comments and clarifying questions. I am of course alone responsible for any misconception or mistake.