Argument PP, Agree and Incorporation

The Morphological Visibility Condition (MVC) (Baker 1996) requires incorporation to co-occur with agreement in order to render a phrase visible for theta role assignment. However, what is missing in the MVC is an account of why incorporation and agreement should co-occur. By recasting the relation between incorporation and agreement in current minimalist terms (Chomsky 2000, 2001), this paper shows that incorporation can be understood as a consequence of Agree. Thus, under the proposed view, incorporation is predicted to occur upon Agree. Building on the Blackfoot (Algonquian) facts, I argue that p head of an argument PP enters Agree resulting p incorporation to the verb. By motivating a language specific feature [m(ental state)], a p head appears incorporated to the verb as a result of [m]-Agree. Thus, the proposed analysis supports the recent view that incorporation belongs in narrow syntax (Roberts 2010).