Subject-verb number agreement

an analysis with NooJ

Abstract

Some linguistic theories base their descriptions of number agreement between a subject nominal phrase and a finite verb purely on syntactic operations. However, as the nominal phrase becomes more complex due to the addition of nouns with different features [±plural] it is necessary to appeal to semantic and pragmatic interpretations to explain some linguistic choices made by a speaker. The aim of this research is to analyze pieces of written discourse of engineering students in the first and second years of their undergraduate studies by means of the linguistic engine NooJ which makes it possible to formalize different linguistic phenomena. From that analysis, examples of the structure studied are highlighted and examined together with the students. The goal is to develop university students’ metalinguistic skills in order to improve their discourse production.