3.1.1 Mixed-gender groups

Our first two diagnostics pertain to the semantics of gender with animates. Evidence for treating masculine as a default gender comes from mixed-gender groups (see also Holvoet & Semėnienė 2006: 106; Paulauskienė 2007: 72; Bruno 2012: 57). Lithuanian has a class of nouns that can be either masculine or feminine gender depending on the sociocultural gender of the referent, e.g. nouns like atlet-ai ‘athletes-M’ or atlet-ės ‘athletes-F.’ When referring to a group consisting of both men and women, the nominal triggers masculine agreement, including on PAs (16). However, when the nominal is feminine, it can only refer to a group of women, and the PA in these cases instead takes a feminine form (17). This supports the unmarked status of the masculine.

3.1.2 Unknown gender

Another piece of evidence concerns unknown gender. Some nominal roots are compatible with either masculine or feminine PAs depending on the gender of the referent. When these roots appear in subjects referring to people of unknown gender, PAs inflect as masculine (e.g. ligon-is ‘patient.M’ in (18)), which is another indication that masculine is the default gender (Kramer 2009: 17). The feminine DP ligon-ė ‘patient-F’ can only be used for female referents (19).

3.1.3 Coordination of gender-mismatched DPs

The third diagnostic comes from coordination of gender-mismatched DPs with both animates and inanimates, which shows a “resolving” form of gender agreement on PAs. A coordinated subject whose nominal conjuncts mismatch in gender triggers masculine agreement on the PA (20)–(21). Observe that for completeness we include both singular and plural forms for PAs.⁶ We follow other researchers (Wechsler & Zlatić 2003; Kramer 2015: 174–180; Anagnostopoulou 2017) in taking coordination resolution to refer to default or unmarked values (for alternative views on resolution, see Corbett 1991; 2006). Unlike other languages such as Modern Greek, Lithuanian does not vary a PA’s gender according to animacy: animate and inanimate DP subjects exhibit the same pattern e.g., (22)–(23). In addition, these examples do not involve a closest conjunct pattern, as the PAs inflect in the masculine regardless of the order of the conjuncts e.g., (20)–(23).

We thus take the evidence from coordination resolution as support for masculine being the default gender.

3.1.4 Loanwords

We now turn to diagnostics pertaining to the morphological assignment of default gender. Our next piece of evidence for a masculine default comes from gender assignment to loanwords (Corbett 1991: Ch. 4). Bruno (2012: 79) shows that loanwords referring to inanimates are assigned masculine in Lithuanian, lending credence to the idea that masculine serves as a default gender, as exemplified in (24)–(25) (see Mathiassen 1996: 69–73 and Vaicekauskienė 2007 for further discussion on Lithuanian loanwords).⁷

Building off these observations, we add that inanimate loanword subjects can only trigger masculine and not neuter on PAs, suggesting default assignment is not relativized to the attributive or predicative position.

3.1.5 Onomatopoeia and interjections

While the other tests have probed the representation of gender on PAs, the gender assignment on attributive adjectives also provides important insights.⁸ Observe that onomatopoeic sounds can be modified with attributive adjectives, in which case the adjective must be masculine; neither feminine nor neuter is possible (28).⁹

As was illustrated in Section 2, the same type of behavior can be observed with interjections such as oj. Only masculine adjectives can modify the interjection; feminine and neuter adjectives are ungrammatical.¹⁰

Interim summary In this subsection, we have investigated the distribution of gender on PAs in default gender environments. Masculine agreement on PAs is triggered by subjects that are nominals referring to mixed-gender groups, nominals referring to a person of unknown gender, gender-mismatched coordinated nominals, and loanwords. Neither feminine nor neuter forms are available on PAs in these environments, which we take as evidence that masculine is a default gender. In addition, attributive adjectives modifying onomatopoeic sounds and interjections also occur in masculine forms, which we take as further evidence of masculine’s default status.¹¹

3.2.1 Non-structural case

We first discuss instances of non-agreement where the gender features of the subject are not accessible for agreement with a PA. The first piece of evidence comes from grammatical subjects with non-nominative case.

Lithuanian is like Icelandic (on which, see Zaenen et al. 1985; i.a.) in that it has non-nominative grammatical subjects, which bear non-structural cases but otherwise exhibit properties of canonical nominative subjects (Šereikaitė in prep). For example, predicates like trūkti ‘to lack’, užtekti ‘to have enough’, stigti ‘to be short of’, pakakti and ‘to suffice’ take a dative subject. The dative DP behaves like a subject in that it binds a subject-oriented anaphor savo as in (30) (Legate et al. 2019). The non-nominative subject does not agree with the predicate, and instead the verb displays third-person morphology, which is default morphology in the language (Šereikaitė in prep). We follow H. Sigurðsson (1996), Bobaljik (2008), Preminger (2011; 2014), and E.F. Sigurðsson (2017), among others, in taking this to be the result of agreement not obtaining.

Dative subjects can also occur in constructions with PAs, as in (32)–(33). The dative experiencer here patterns as a non-nominative subject in serving as a binder of the subject-oriented savo. Crucially, in these cases, the PA can only be neuter. We take this to be another instance of non-agreement of the PA, which strikingly takes neuter.

In contrast, observe that Lithuanian nominative subjects in constructions similar to (32) trigger agreement on PAs, which is a well-known fact from other languages such as Icelandic. In these cases (34), the PA cannot be neuter; it is either masculine or feminine depending on the gender of the subject.

3.2.2 Pancake Sentences

The second diagnostic is based on so-called “Pancake Sentences”. In Scandinavian languages such as Swedish and Norwegian, certain PAs inflect for neuter singular regardless of the features of a subject (Hellan 1986; Enger 2004; 2013; Josefsson 2006; 2009; Wechsler 2013; cf. also Danon 2012; 2014 on Hebrew ze sentences). For example, in (35), the subject bears common gender and plural number, but the PA is neuter singular. This yields a particular interpretation of the subject; in (35), that is ‘eating pancakes is good’.

An analogue to Scandinavian Pancake Sentences can be found in Lithuanian. Certain PAs take neuter even when they occur with masculine or feminine subjects as in (36)–(37). Ambrazas et al. (1997: 137) observe that PAs take neuter when they express the “meaning of a generalized quality”, and also “they are never attributes to a noun, and the quality they refer to is never an attribute to a concrete thing”. We take one such instance of this to be Pancake Sentences (for other discussion of different environments with neuter, see Ambrazas et al. 1997: 135–137). We further observe that, like Scandinavian Pancake Sentences, neuter PAs in these constructions yield a certain interpretation. These sentences have an eventive interpretation; hence, (36a) means the pancakes ‘are healthy to eat’ rather than ‘are in a healthy state’, which is the interpretation with an agreeing PA, as in (36b). The same contrast can be observed in (37).

That the inflection of PAs in Pancake Sentences does not express the features of the subject has been analyzed as non-agreement (Hellan 1986; Wechsler 2013; Danon 2012; 2014). We take Lithuanian Pancake Sentences to be the same type of non-agreement, since in these constructions, the PA can only be neuter, irrespective of the features of the subject.

3.2.3 Infinitival subjects

Now we turn to a case of non-agreement where the subject lacks gender features. Infinitives can appear as subjects of copular sentences (38), in which case they trigger neuter on PAs. We take infinitival subjects to lack gender features, following other authors (Corbett 1991; Corbett & Fraser 1999; Kramer 2015); also see Section 4.3 for discussion.

An anonymous reviewer points out that in these types of sentences, a subject position may potentially be filled with a null expletive, with the to-infinitive clause topicalized. However, the reviewer suggests that this hypothesis is ruled out due to the existence of dative quirky subjects (discussed in Subsection 3.2.1). Crucially in those cases, the subject position is filled by the dative DP rather than a potentially expected null expletive.

Evidence from genitive of negation in Lithuanian suggests that to-infinitive clauses in copular sentences do not behave like A-bar-moved elements, which we would expect if there was a null expletive subject. Lithuanian genitive of negation tracks objects which would otherwise be assigned a structural accusative case, as illustrated in (39a)–(39b) (for overview see Arkadiev 2016; Sigurðsson & Šereikaitė 2019).

When the matrix verb is negated, the object of a to-infinitive complement can also be affected by genitive of negation (Arkadiev 2016). Specifically, the object can bear genitive case as well as accusative, as exemplified in (40)–(41). Genitive of negation is retained when the complement is topicalized, thus undergoes A-bar movement, as in (42).

In contrast, to-infinitive clauses in negated copular sentences do not show the behavior of the topicalized infinitive complement, in that they do not allow genitive of negation.

The behavior of the to-infinitive clause in copular sentences is parallel to a grammatical subject that is a neuter pronoun, which also cannot appear with genitive case.

We therefore conclude that to-infinitive clauses can be subjects of copular sentences, and thus that the PA is neuter because these clauses lack gender.

3.2.4 Weather-type constructions

Our final case of non-agreement occurs when the subject is not projected, as in weather-type constructions. Weather-type constructions have been suggested to trigger default agreement (e.g. Corbett 1991: 204 on neuter in Russian; Kramer 2015: 143 on feminine in Zayse and Zargulla). In Lithuanian, PAs in weather-type constructions appear with the neuter, with masculine and feminine being ungrammatical (45).

We attribute the non-agreement behavior of PAs in these environments to non-projection of a subject. This is evidenced by a contrast between weather constructions with verbs versus weather constructions with PAs. In (46), weather constructions with verbs such as lyti ‘to rain’ are grammatical with overt cognate subjects. In contrast, PAs do not allow cognate subjects as in (47). The availability of cognate subjects with weather verbs points to a plausible analysis with weather pro; however, this does not hold for weather-type adjectives, which we take to suggest that no such argument is projected. The non-projection of weather pro in these constructions results in non-agreement. (Note that the language lacks overt expletives).

To conclude, we showed that PAs inflect in the neuter and not in masculine or feminine in non-agreement environments, i.e. when the features of a subject are not visible to a PA. We have distinguished three environments where the non-agreement takes place: i) when the features of the subject are not accessible for agreement, as has been shown with subjects with non-structural case and Pancake Sentences; ii) when the subject lacks gender, as was the case for infinitives; and iii) when the subject is unprojected, as in weather-type constructions.

3.2.5 Summary

In this section, we have demonstrated that Lithuanian presents a split in the distribution of masculine and neuter PAs in environments identified in the literature as being associated with defaults. The masculine PA forms occur in situations where the gender of the subject bears unmarked gender. Specifically, masculine on PAs occurs with subjects which are loanwords, coordinated expressions, nominals referring to a mixed group or referents with unknown gender. In contrast, neuter PA forms occur in situations when gender features of the subject are not transmitted, which we referred to as non-agreement. Given our results, feminine appears to be the marked gender in the language. The results of our diagnostics are summarized in Table 3.

The split behavior we have identified points to the presence of two classes of default diagnostics, which are often conflated in the literature on defaults. In this section, we have provided evidence that one class identifies the unmarked gender feature, whereas the other identifies feature absence.

4.1.1 Gender representation and n

We situate our analysis within the Distributed Morphology (DM) framework (Halle & Marantz 1993; Harley & Noyer 1999; Halle 1997; Embick & Marantz 2008; among many others). Following much of the DM literature, we assume categories like noun and adjective are decomposed into a root and a category-defining head (Marantz 1997; 2001; Arad 2003; Embick 2010), and that roots must combine with categorizing heads (Embick & Marantz 2008: 6; see also Embick 2015). As sketched in (48), a root combines with n to form a noun or it can combine with a to form an adjective.

As in many languages, Lithuanian n determines the gender of a nominal, as in the case of the overt n suffix -ien.¹² When this suffix is added, the noun is always feminine, regardless of the gender of the corresponding noun with a nominalizing head -∅ (49)–(51).¹³ The gender of the noun can also be observed through the inflection on agreeing elements such as attributive adjectives. For completeness, we include case, gender, and number information in the glosses here. Lithuanian has a number of other nominalizing suffixes that determine the gender; for discussion and overview of these nominalizers, see Armoskaite 2011; 2014.

We thus adopt the view from other works that gender features originate on the nominalizing head n (Lecarme 2002; Lowenstamm 2008; Acquaviva 2008; Kramer 2015; 2016; see also Šereikaitė 2018 for evidence that Lithuanian n carries gender features, and Armoskaite 2011; 2014 for a related approach).

For Lithuanian, we propose that the inventory of n heads all bear a gender feature, which we encode as the feature [GEND]. Thus the feature [GEND] will be included in the representation of both masculine and feminine, since these are the true gender categories in the language. Furthermore, as our results from Section 3 showed, the feminine gender is more marked than masculine. We encode this markedness relationship by analyzing the masculine as only having [GEND], while the feminine bears the additional feature [FEM], as indicated below in (52). This reflects markedness through feature containment (Bobaljik 2012; also see Harley & Ritter 2002 for a related approach based on feature geometry), where the representation of the more marked gender contains the representation of the unmarked gender. The predictions of this account are explicitly discussed and compared with alternative analyses in Section 4.2 and Section 4.4. Our feature representation of ns is illustrated in (53). The nominalizing head -ien bears [FEM][GEND], while the null nominalizing head -∅ bears masculine gender, thus [GEND].

While gender features originate on n, they are expressed along with number and case on inflectional suffixes, which we refer to as XInfl (i.e. aInfl, nInfl, etc.). XInfl expresses syntactic features of heads from which they are “dissociated” in the postsyntax (Embick 1997; Embick & Noyer 2007; Kramer 2009; Norris 2014). For example, the noun vakaras consists of a root $\sqrt{\text{VAKAR}}$ , a null nominalizer that bears [GEND] feature, thus masculine, and the nInfl suffix -as, which expresses gender, number, and case features,¹⁴ as in (54a). The noun vakarienė ‘supper’ is built from the same root, but instead has an overt n suffix -ien that bears [GEND][FEM], which makes the noun feminine.

(54)	a.	vakar-∅-as ‘evening-n-NOM.M.SG’
	b.	vakar-ien-ė ‘supper-n-NOM.F.SG’

The example in (54) presents an instance in which a single root can combine with ns of different genders. An anonymous reviewer wonders why it is not the case that any root can combine with ns of any gender. We assume that the selectional relationship between roots and ns is governed by specific semantic and arbitrary licensing conditions (see Kramer 2015: Ch. 3 for discussion). For instance, (54a) is ungrammatical when a feminine n realized as -∅ is used (*[ $\sqrt{\text{VAKAR}}$ -∅-a] ‘evening-n-NOM.F.SG’); though this could in principle be built in the morphosyntax, it may not meet the licensing conditions imposed by the interfaces.

Unlike n, gender features are never inherent to adjectives, which yields the following inventory (55).

Under our approach, Lithuanian lacks “plain” featureless n; i.e. there is no “neuter” n. This is motivated by the following factors. First, all lexical nouns in the language have gender, being inherently either masculine or feminine, and not neuter. This is reflected in the inventory of ns in (55). Second, attributive adjectives are never neuter (see Section 2). This is consistent with the widely assumed idea that attributive adjectives modify nP.

4.1.2 Agreement vs. non-agreement

We now discuss how gender features are transmitted to PAs. Given that adjectives do not have gender features inherently, we assume that PAs agree with a subject through upward Agree (Baker 2008).¹⁵ Agreement with nominals is with the features of the topmost projection in the nominal domain (Danon 2011; 2013), typically D, which collects features originating internal to the nominal through agreement, including the gender features on n. That D collects gender features is evidenced by inflection on demonstratives, which agree in gender (56). Agreement between a PA and a DP subject is illustrated in (57).

Recall that adjectives exhibit a three-way distinction expressed on aInfl: masculine, feminine, and neuter. When an adjective agrees with a nominal bearing [GEND][FEM], aInfl will exhibit feminine agreement. When the adjective agrees with a nominal bearing [GEND], aInfl will exhibit masculine agreement. In contrast, in cases of non-agreement, where the adjective does not have access to features of a nominal to agree with, the adjective will be realized with neuter inflection, which we propose corresponds to the absence of gender features.

In the postsyntax, aInfl will be dissociated from a. aInfl will be realized according to the Elsewhere Condition, with neuter forms being the least specified, lacking gender features (cf. Kramer 2015). Masculine and feminine forms, in contrast, will be specified for gender features. This is shown in (58) for the adjective gražu.

Because gender features originate on n, our proposal predicts that adjectives are neuter when they fail to agree with nominals. Hence, non-agreement occurs: i) when a subject lacks n or is unprojected or ii) when agreement between a PA and an argument is disrupted. In contrast, PAs appear in masculine when they agree with a subject that has an unmarked gender feature originating on n. We now discuss how our analysis applies to each of the cases discussed in Section 3.

4.4.1 Neuter pronouns and their features

Our analysis places inherent gender features solely on n, with neuter being the absence of gender. This correctly predicts that there are no neuter nouns in the language. However, recall from Section 2 that the language does have neuter pronouns, e.g. viskas ‘everything.N’, which always appear with neuter inflection on PAs was illustrated in (4), repeated here in (85).²⁴

To account for this, we extend the n hypothesis to pronouns, and propose that in Lithuanian, masculine and feminine pronouns project n, in the spirit of theories that posit complex internal nominal structure in pronouns (e.g. Bjorkman 2017; Panagiotidis 2019 for gender). In contrast, neuter pronouns, as we argue, do not project n, and therefore lack gender. We contend that our analysis is supported by the absence of a number alternation for neuter pronouns. We follow Picallo (2006) and Alexiadou et al. (2011) in taking the projection of n to be required to support the projection of Num. We therefore predict that the language lacks a number distinction between singular and plural for neuter pronouns, unlike the corresponding masculine and feminine. This is borne out, as illustrated by the morphology of demonstrative pronouns in (86), which show a distinction between masculine, feminine and neuter. We take the lack of the distinction between singular and plural forms to suggest that neuter pronouns lack number features in general. It is important to note that the data presented here may constitute evidence that gender and number features in Lithuanian are bundled together, as pointed out by a reviewer; for discussion of this type of bundling approach, see Kramer 2015; 2016.

Based on this distinction, we assume that the structure of pronouns is as sketched in (87). Observe that masculine and feminine personal pronouns project n, and therefore can project Num, while in contrast, neuter pronouns do not project n and therefore cannot project Num. Since some neuter pronouns are also quantified (such as viskas ‘everything’), we also include Q in their representation.

(87)	a.	F.PL pronoun
	b.	N pronoun

Instances like (85) with neuter pronominal subjects, and PAs thus involve non-agreement, because the PA does not receive a gender value from the neuter pronoun subject. This is illustrated in (88).²⁵

The last point we would like to make about neuter pronouns concerns case features. We have demonstrated in Section 2 that neuter pronouns like viskas ‘everything’ and taĩ distinguish different case forms (e.g. visk-ą ‘everything-ACC.N’). Thus, while these categories lack gender and number, they seem to have case. This is consistent with our analysis, since the D head more generally can bear case features (see Šereikaitė 2019 for evidence of D bearing case features in Lithuanian).

4.4.2 Deadjectival nominals

Another phenomenon to which we can extend our analysis is deadjectival nominals, as in (89). As can be observed, neuter deadjectival nominals can be copular subjects (Ambrazas et al. 1997: 136), in which case they must trigger neuter on a PA.

Despite their adjectival morphology, deadjectival nominals share characteristics with nominals in that they appear in argument positions, as mentioned in Section 2. For example, they can occur in accusative object positions, as in (12), repeated in (90a)–(90b).

Although they resemble nominals in this respect, we propose that neuter deadjectival nominals lack n, just like infinitives (see Section 4.3), resulting in the neuter inflection seen on the PA. Support for this analysis comes from a comparison between the nominalizations that do involve n and the deadjectival nominals that lack it (for similar distinction see Alexiadou et al. 2012; Alexiadou & Iordǎchioaia 2014). We first note that the deadjectival nominals allow adverbial but not adjectival modification (91a), whereas overtly suffixed nominalizations show the opposite pattern (91b).

The second argument comes from comparatives, which are permitted with deadjectival nominals but not overtly suffixed nominals.

These diagnostics suggest that deadjectival nominals lack internal nominal syntax and instead behave like adjectives. However, as we have pointed out, they are able to appear in argument positions (90a), and thus appear to behave as though they have “external” nominal syntax.

Our analysis draws from a precedent from recent literature showing that certain types of nominalizations are derived without n (Alexiadou et al. 2011; Bošković 2013; Villalba 2013; Alexiadou & Iordǎchioaia 2014; Iordăchioaia 2014; among others). Because these deadjectival nominals lack n, they consequently lack gender. This accounts for both the neuter form of the deadjectival and the fact that they appear with PAs with neuter inflection (89). We assign them the structure in (93), which lacks the nominalizing head n, and therefore lacks gender. We include a DegP to capture the fact that these deadjectivals can appear with comparatives.²⁶

As far as case features of these adjectives are concerned, recall that deadjectival nominals can appear in an accusative object position (90). We propose that these deadjectival nominals do indeed receive case values and these values are realized with the same neuter forms. In other words, adjectival neuter inflection is syncretic across case values (see Table (1)).

4.4.3 Morphology of neuter adjectives

Lastly, we relate our analysis to the morphology of neuter adjectives. Recall that our representation of the feminine corresponds to the features [GEND][FEM], which contains the representation of the masculine, [GEND], while the representation of the neuter lacks gender features. Assuming the Elsewhere Condition, our analysis predicts that it is impossible to syncretize neuter and feminine for aInfl to the exclusion of the masculine (all else being equal). This would be a type of *ABA syncretism (see Bobaljik 2012; Smith et al. 2018; among others).

Recall from Section 2 that adjectives of the iu-class do not exhibit gender syncretism: all three forms have different inflections; examples are provided in Table 4 for the nominative singular. In other words, they only exhibit ABC patterns. The adjective class -(i)a distinguishes between neuter and feminine forms with stress, even though the inflectional forms appear to be the same, as shown in Table 4. We take the stress facts to indicate that neuter and feminine forms are in fact distinct, and therefore also exhibit ABC patterns, not ABA.

One apparent counterexample comes from a subset of derived adjectives belonging to the (i)a class, which share an inflectional ending and are stressed the same way in the neuter and the nominative feminine singular.

While the neuter and feminine appear to be identical on the surface, we suggest that this does not run counter to our claims. The adjectives in (94)–(95) contain “strong” stem suffix exponents (cf. Ambrazas et al. 1997: 159–162), e.g. -ėt and -on, which attract stress even in the context of a “strong” suffix like the feminine nominative singular -à. We thus propose that the Vocabulary Items for the feminine and neuter are always distinct. The feminine ending -a includes stress in its Vocabulary Item. However, the stress fails to shift with “strong” stems. As a consequence, these forms overlap with the neuter, whose suffix is not stressed for the (i)a class.²⁷