14.1 NP coordination 705b. ba-\0-s-\ha-naeY
be.lost.PerfP-\Dat-3Sg-\Dat-lPl
hakkae-n i-lseqkaew-aen
give.LoImpfP-3MaPlS Pl-garment-MaPl
[waeld i-s-ukas]
[nor Pl-Instr-old.garment]
'They-Ma no longer give us garments, or rags (worn-out
garments).' [K]14.1.3 Gender and plural agreement
The agreement site for a Tamashek NP may be to the left (verbal subject
agreement) or to the right (participles, including "modifying adjectives").
In conjunctions ('and'), left agreement is confined to the features of the
left coordinand, as in (883.a-b), where the clause-initial verb shows subject
agreement with the left coordinand. Right agreement is summative (hence
always plural), as in (883.c) where the participle agrees with the sum of 'ewe'
and 'goat'. (883.d) shows the same pattern, but not necessarily true clause-
internal agreement, since a preverbal "subject" NP (here 'bull with cow')
could be considered to be a pre-sentential topical constituent that is "resumed"
by a plural pronominal in the core sentence itself. In (883), only nouns that are
factors in agreement are bolded.(883) a. t-ammu-t t-aess [d nae-wdes]
3FeSgS-die.PerfP-Aug Fe-cow [with Sg-bull]
Ά cow and a bull died.'b. 1-mmu-t nae-wdes [ad t-aess]
3MaSgS-die.PerfP-Aug Sg-bull [with Fe-cow]
Ά bull and a cow died.'c. [t-e-haele d 't-se-ra-t-t] masllol-nen
[Fe-Sg-ewe with Fe-Sg-goat-Fe-FeSg] white-Partpl.Pl
'a white [ewe and goat]' (a white ewe and a white goat)d. [ά-wdes d t-aess] ammu-n
[Sg-bull with Fe-cow] die.PerfP-3MaPlS
Ά bull and a cow died.'In (883.c), 'white' modifies both 'ewe' and 'goat', as the bracketing of the
free translation suggests. Since participles have a single plural category, they
do not specify gender in the plural. If 'white' in this example agreed only with
the right coordinand (FeSg), it would have scope limited thereto, i.e. '[a ewe]
and [a white goat]'.