This comparative syntactic study claims that agreement is the most central functional category responsible for licensing predication in finite, non-finite and small clauses alike. Intriguing syntactic phenomena like Icelandic infinitival predicates taking non-nominative (quirky) subjects; psych-impersonal and modal predicates in Italian, Hungarian and Russian; meteorological predicates, existential clauses, post-verbal and null subjects in the so-called null-subject VSO languages can all be better analyzed through a concept of predication that is closely related to AGRP, manifesting subject-verb agreement. The overt agreement marking in Hungarian and Portuguese infinitival clauses further strengthens this view. Obviation and control subjunctive clauses in the Balkan languages, Welsh finite and non-finite infinitival clauses as well as case-marked secondary predicates in Icelandic, Slovak, Hungarian, Russian and Finnish also lend support to an analysis where the [+pred] feature is checked in AGRP.

Table of contents

List of abbreviations vii–ix

List of cases in Hungarian x

Acknowledgements xi

Foreword xii–xv

1. Finiteness and minimalist theory 1–28

2. Two theories of predicstion without AGRP 29–41

3. AGR-based theories of grammar 43–69

4. AGRP in infinitival clauses: Icelandic and Hungarian 71–143 5. AGRP in other forms of non-finite predication 145–198

6. Conclusion 199–201

References 203–218

Index 220–221