STANDARD GERMAN
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Himmelreich, Anke, Melissa Jeckel, Katharina Hartmann, Johannes Mursell (2021): Agreement with Coordinated Subjects in the World's Languages [Data set]. Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main (Link: https://www.multivaluation.de/database.php)
Overview
| Language family: | Indo-European (Germanic)
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| Countries: | Germany, Austria, Switzerland
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| Number of speakers: | 90-105 million
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| Agreement features: | number, person
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| Attested word orders: | SV
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| Coordination types: | and, or
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Data Collection
The data about number agreement in ``or''-coordinations comes from an acceptability study with 67 native speakers. The rest of the data comes from an online questionnaire filled out by one native speaker.
Patterns for number
Coordination with ``and''
SV order
Pattern: The number on the verb is plural in all cases.
| 1st | 2nd | sg | pl
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| sg | pl | pl
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| pl | pl | pl
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Examples:
| (1) | Der | Junge | und | der | Mann | rennen. |
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| the.sg | boy.sg | and | the.sg | man.sg | run.3pl |
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| `The boy and the man run.'
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| (2) | Die | Jungs | und | der | Mann | rennen. |
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| the.pl | boy.pl | and | the.sg | man.sg | run.3pl |
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| `The boys and the man run.'
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| (3) | Der | Junge | und | die | Männer | rennen. |
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| the.sg | boy.sg | and | the.pl | man.pl | run.3pl |
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| `The boy and the men run.'
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| (4) | Die | Jungs | und | die | Männer | rennen. |
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| the.pl | boy.pl | and | the.pl | man.pl | run.3pl |
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| `The boys and the men run.'
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Coordination with ``or''
SV order
Pattern: With two singular conjuncts, the verb can be singular or plural. If the two conjuncts mismatch in number, number is resolved to plural.
| 1st | 2nd | sg | pl
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| sg | sg/pl | pl
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| pl | pl | pl
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Examples:
| (7) | Der | Junge | oder | der | Mann | rennt/rennen. |
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| the.sg | boy.sg | or | the.sg | man.sg | run.3sg/run.3pl |
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| `The boy or the man run.'
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| (8) | Die | Jungs | oder | der | Mann | rennen. |
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| the.pl | boy.pl | or | the.sg | man.sg | run.3pl |
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| `The boys or the man run.'
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| (9) | Der | Junge | oder | die | Männer | rennen. |
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| the.sg | boy.sg | or | the.pl | man.pl | run.3pl |
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| `The boy or the men run.'
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| (10) | Die | Jungs | oder | die | Männer | rennen. |
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| the.pl | boy.pl | or | the.pl | man.pl | run.3pl |
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| `The boys or the men run.'
|
VS order
Pattern: With two singular conjuncts, the verb can be singular or plural. If the two conjuncts mismatch in number, number is resolved to plural.
| 1st | 2nd | sg | pl
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| sg | sg/pl | pl
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| pl | pl | pl
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Examples:
| (11) | Ins | Dorf | rennt/rennen | der | Junge | oder | der | Mann. |
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| into.the | village | run.3sg/run.3pl | | the.sg | boy.sg | or | the.sg | man.sg |
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| `The boy or the man run into the village.'
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| (12) | Ins | Dorf | rennen | die | Jungs | oder | der | Mann. |
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| into.the | village | run.3pl | | the.pl | boy.pl | or | the.sg | man.sg |
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| `The boys or the man run into the village.'
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| (13) | Ins | Dorf | rennen | der | Junge | oder | die | Männer. |
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| into.the | village | run.3pl | | the.sg | boy.sg | or | the.pl | man.pl |
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| `The boy or the men run into the village.'
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| (14) | Ins | Dorf | rennen | die | Jungs | oder | die | Männer. |
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| into.the | village | run.3pl | | the.pl | boy.pl | or | the.pl | man.pl |
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| `The boys or the men run into the village.'
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Patterns for person
Coordination with ``and''
SV order
Pattern: In all cases person is resolved to 1st/3rd person plural. (Note: 1st and 3rd person plural are syncretic.)
| 1st | 2nd | 1 | 2 | 3
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| 1 | | 1/3pl | 1/3pl
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| 2 | 1/3pl | |
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| 3 | 1/3pl | |
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Examples:
| (15) | Du | und | ich | rennen. |
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| you | and | I | run.1/3pl |
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| `You and I run.'
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| (16) | Ich | und | du | rennen. |
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| I | and | you | run.1/3pl |
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| `I and you run.'
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| (17) | Wir | und | die | rennen. |
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| we | and | they | run.1/3pl |
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| `We and they run.'
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| (18) | Die | und | wir | rennen. |
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| they | and | we | run.1/3pl |
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| `They and we run.'
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Coordination with ``or''
SV order
Pattern: In all cases person is resolved to 1st/3rd person plural. (Note: 1st and 3rd person plural are syncretic.)
| 1st | 2nd | 1 | 2 | 3
|
| 1 | | 1/3pl | 1/3pl
|
| 2 | 1/3pl | |
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| 3 | 1/3pl | |
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Examples:
| (19) | Du | oder | ich | rennen. |
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| you | or | I | run.1/3pl |
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| `You or I run.'
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| (20) | Ich | oder | du | rennen. |
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| I | or | you | run.1/3pl |
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| `I or you run.'
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| (21) | Wir | oder | die | rennen. |
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| we | or | they | run.1/3pl |
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| `We or they run.'
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| (22) | Die | oder | wir | rennen. |
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| they | or | we | run.1/3pl |
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| `They or we run.'
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