φ-feature Hierarchy and Old Irish Object Pronoun Distribution

Abstract: This paper explains the distribution of the “infixed” and suffixed object pronouns in Old Irish as presented by Cowgill (1987) in terms of agreement and the hierarchy among φ-features. Building on recent developments in syntactic theory—especially Preminger’s (2014) rethinking of Chomsky’s Agree operation and Deal’s (2015) model of interaction and satisfaction—it argues that the distribution is regulated by a person hierarchy with the 2nd person at its top, and a gender hierarchy with the feminine at its top. Under this view, the selection of “infixed” pronoun would only be available when the subject is at the top of the person hierarchy, or when the object is either at the top of the gender hierarchy or is not susceptible to it (not all object pronouns have a value for gender). Conversely, the selection of suffixed pronoun would only be available when both arguments are lower on the hierarchy scale. While this account still leaves some questions unanswered, further research may provide evidence that the posited hierarchies reach areas of the grammar beyond the distribution of the different forms of object pronouns.

Recommended citation: Lunardi, Valentina. 2023. "φ-feature Hierarchy and Old Irish Object Pronoun Distribution." Proceedings of the 32nd Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference. Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag.
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