Utku at online workshop on agreement

The octopus under the spoons and the lemons is swimming and boiling.

October 25, Utku Türk asks "When do we plan agreement in our speech?" and answers with evidence from agreement attraction effects in unaccusatives, presenting joint work with Ellen and Colin at online workshop on "Puzzles of Agreement", collectively organized by the University of Bucharest, the University of Toronto, UMass Amherst, and ZAS Berlin. Comparing unaccustatives like "The octopus under the spoons is boiling" with unergatives like "The octopus under the lemons is swimming," the study found comparable rates of agreement attraction, and concludes from this result that "agreement is planned independently of its host verb," rather than in concert with planning and production of the verb.