Agreement (linguistics)

Congruence is in linguistics, the conformity of characteristic values ​​for different elements within a syntactic domain (eg sentence or constituent ).

Subject-predicate agreement

In many languages ​​are subject and predicate in congruence. In German, both must agree in person and number. Therefore, the extension of the finite verb to the subject must fit.

In the example sentence you picked up the red sheet of paper. congruent the verb ( lifted, 3rd person singular ) with the subject (she).

KNG - congruence

As KNG - congruence ( hint: king - congruence ) is called (for example, in German and Latin required ) Consistency of case, number and gender in Determinantien, adjectives and nouns within a noun phrase. In other words: The other word types follow the noun in case, number and gender.

Examples from the German

• The beautiful house is for sale.

• The big man does the dirty street.

Examples from Latin

• Bella stulta sunt. (Wars are stupid. )

• Oratori magno est plaustrum. ( The great orator heard a cart. ) → different endings of " oratori " and " magno " despite KNG - congruence
• Plaustrum pauperum est parvum. ( The cart of the poor is small. ) → same endings of " plaustrum " and " pauperum ", but no KNG - congruence

Congruence in language typology

In contemporary language typology is congruence (English " agreement" ) of the phenomenon of cross-reference (English, like: " Cross - reference " ) distinguished.

For example, congruent in the French phrase le garçon chante ( " the boy sings" ) the verb chant with the noun with respect to person and number, while in the case of the Latin phrase puer cantat ("[ the ] boy singing " ) cantat the verb alone can stand and the noun can be practically understood as appositional to this; Noun and verb speak upon each other (hence " cross - reference ").

Both phenomena are subsumed under the generic term indexing.