Concord Asymmetries in Urdu Nominalization

Abstract

This study investigates concord asymmetries in nominalization of Urdu, a head-final language (e.g., YP-X_o), which is structurally complex and morphologically rich. Adopting a qualitative descriptive research design, this study employs Bayrih’s (2017) theory of concord generalization, Pesetsky’s (2013) Feature Assignment (FA) framework, and Koopman’s (2003) functional projection principle. The findings reveal that Urdu represents a partial concord hierarchy.  Urdu consistently demonstrates number, gender concord extending from adjective + noun, and demonstrative + noun structures, whereas case concord is absent. Case features are blocked at the NP phase boundary and highlighted externally via postpositions; however, the number and gender features are consistently merged, copied, and projected onto modifiers. The outcomes raised challenging questions regarding the feature percolation framework developed by Norris (2014, 2017) in accounting for the Urdu nominal structure, demonstrating that the concord in Urdu is hierarchically restricted and typologically predictable. Thus, this study contributes to the theoretical typology of concord by representing Urdu within the hierarchy of concord features and showing the structural operationalization systems that construct partial concord systems in head-final languages.