On Agreement in Small Clauses in English and Its Acquisition

On Agreement in Small Clauses in English and Its Acquisition

This paper aims to provide an analysis of the long-discussed agreement phenomena in small clauses in English, and attempts to give an answer to an issue on how Korean speakers learning English can acquire the agreement phenomena in small clauses in English in their learning stages. Based on the constituency of small clauses as TP, this paper shows that agreement both in small clauses and in copula verb constructions is nicely explained under extended Agree put forth in this paper. This paper suggests that, in order to facilitate their acquisition of agreement in small clauses in English, Korean students learning English need to study such Korean sentences as (28) with overt Case agreement and English sentences like (26), which will give them internalized knowledge of extended Agree.