Nothing to agree on: Non-agreeing subjects of copular clauses in Hebrew

Abstract

Copular clauses in Hebrew with the copula ze never allow their subjects to agree with the copula or with the post-copular predicate. Following previous work, it is shown that such clauses are not predicational and that their subjects often get a ‘hidden event’ interpretation. After ruling out an analysis that takes the copula to be the actual subject and an analysis involving a clausal subject, it is argued that these clauses involve a subject that lacks the features needed for subject-external agreement, while having the features needed for subject-internal agreement.