Sujeto compuesto. Concordancia ¿plural o singular?

Abstract

When noun phrases are conjoined to form a compound subject; problems with agreement rules may appear. The general rule (the “number resolution” rule in Corbett 1983) points out that; under such conditions; conjoined elements require a plural. Nevertheless; this rule frequently does not apply. If all the subject elements are in the plural; the resolution rule is followed; however; when at least one of the conjuncts is in the singular form; the variation appears: in some cases; we may observe a formal; syntactic agreement; with a singular predicate (this predicate agreeing with the singular conjunct); in other cases; we have the semanatic agreement; with the verb in plural form (agreeing with the conjoined elements). The following factors may be the cause for variation: a) the position of agreeing elements (if the verb precedes or is postponed to the subject); b) the semantic features of both subject and verb; c) the kind of nexus used to conjoin subject elements. In this paper we analize this phenomenon and the influence of the factors just mentioned above; in a Spanish language contemporaneous corpus obtained from cultured speakers in six Hispanic-american cities.