'Ang'-marking and Givenness in Tagalog

This study revisits the debate on the Tagalog alignment system, more specifically, on the puzzling nature of the phrase marked by ang. We argue that verbal agreement with the ang-phrase in Tagalog is triggered by Givenness. This account is based on close examination of ang’s compatibility with the reference of different cognitive statuses in discourse and of ang’s interaction with left-peripheral phenomena. Our analysis proposes that an argument Given in discourse moves to the highest phrase in the vP phase, where Givenness is encoded and where it gets ang-marked, subsequently determining agreement in T.