This squib presents evidence from the Algonquian and Dene language families to support a connection between person and animacy. A range of morphosyntactic patterns in these languages, including pronoun inventories, agreement restrictions, and hierarchy effects, are argued to indicate that inanimate nominals lack formal person features. This proposal allows the morphosyntactic patterning of inanimates to fall out from grammatical principles that are independently required to account for person effects. We conclude that the often-assumed model in which third persons are "personless" must be revised to allow for languages in which only inanimate third persons lack formal person features.The squib is organized as follows. Section 1 provides background on person features and the notion of personlessness. Section 2 shows that various patterns in Algonquian and Dene morphosyntax follow from an analysis in which inanimate third persons are personless but animate third persons are specified for person. Section 3 considers whether the proposed person-animacy connection is conditioned by semantic animacy or grammatical animacy. *To Marie-Louise Bouvier White, Lena Drygeese, the late Archie Wedzin, and an anonymous consultant, masìcho for sharing your knowledge of the Tłıchǫ language. Special thanks and memory to Ojibwe language teachers Donald Keesig, Ella Waukey, and Berdina Johnston of Cape Croker. We thank the organizers and audience of "Gender, Class, and Determination: A Conference on the Nominal Spine", where we first presented this work, for excellent and stimulating feedback.
This article discusses the morphological and syntactic structure of relative clauses in Ojibwe (Algonquian), in particular their status as wh-constructions. Relatives in this language are full clauses that bear special morphology, show evidence of A′-movement of a wh-operator, and consequently exhibit wh-agreement also found in interrogatives and certain types of focus constructions. Ojibwe shows the possibility of wh-agreement realized on T (in addition to C and v for other languages), as it appears on tense prefixes. We account for the realization of wh-agreement on T in Ojibwe via the mechanism of feature inheritance. We propose that while declarative matrix clauses are canonical in that C introduces φ-features in Ojibwe, the role of C in embedded or wh-contexts is to introduce δ-features (discourse features), such as [uwh], rather than φ-features. These δ-features can be introduced by C, but are transferred down to T where they spell out as wh-agreement.
The aim of this article is twofold. First, we claim that δ‐features (discourse features), as well as ϕ‐features, can be inherited from C to T (Richards 2007, Chomsky 2008), as shown by wh‐agreement on T in Ojibwe (Algonquian). Our analysis supports Miyagawa's (2010) hypothesis that discourse and agreement features are two sides of the same coin, which can be distributed differently crosslinguistically. Second, we propose that although ϕ and δ typically bundle together on a single C head, this is not the case in all languages and in fact will vary parametrically. Ojibwe clause typing is partitioned between agreement/ϕ‐features on independent order (i.e., plain matrix) C and discourse/δ‐features on conjunct order (e.g., embedded) C. This parameter, that certain features may or may not bundle on C, captures a significant cluster of properties in Ojibwe: Initial Change, lack of person prefixes in the conjunct order in contrast with the independent, as well as the availability of long‐distance agreement. Our proposal supports the idea that much crosslinguistic variation reduces to the distinct feature structures making up functional heads, such as v, D, and C, rather than to primitives.
This chapter proposes a distinction between syntactic phases headed by C and D as final, in contrast to other non-final phases. Final phases act as stronger boundaries for head movement and provide final landing sites for A′-movement, but non-final phases, while still constituting spell-out domains, impose weaker boundaries. This chapter particularly investigates the phonological effects of final and non-final phases in Ojibwe, and the different processes that can apply at the spell-out of each type of domain. An analysis is provided for an ordering paradox between palatalization and apocope, which is claimed to be accounted for by reference to the syntactic structure and the timing of application of these processes at the spell-out of final or non-final phases.
The main goal of The Clause-typing System of Plains Cree is to support the claim that there are two types of clauses clearly identified in Plains Cree (a Canadian indigenous language of the Algonquian family): ANAPHORIC and INDEXICAL. This proposal makes predictions about the distribution of clauses whose interpretations are dependent on structural embedding or previous discourse in contrast to those whose interpretations are only dependent on the speech situation. An interesting parallel is drawn by the author, Claire Cook, between expressions governed by Binding Theory and the clause types she proposes: anaphoric clauses are akin to pronominals that get their interpretation from the context or antecedent, and indexical clauses are akin to R-expressions that have a fully independent interpretation and cannot be governed by an antecedent-like element. Plains Cree proves to be a robust testing ground since the clause types under discussion are encoded in morphological paradigms and exhibit other features (such as evidential interpretation and differential subject marking) that allow for the determination of clause types. This book is organized as follows. Chapter 1 introduces the central concept that there is a division between clause types that anchor to the speech situation (INDEXICAL) and those that do not, identified as the elsewhere case (ANAPHORIC). Chapter 2 discusses the morphological distinction between indexical and anaphoric clauses, claimed to line up with the morphology of the INDEPENDENT and CONJUNCT VERBAL ORDERS from the Algonquian literature. Chapter 3 looks at indexical clauses in the independent order that cannot be c-commanded or contain externally licensed anaphoric elements, and that can only be evaluated deictically (i.e. with respect to the speech situation). Chapter 4 then discusses anaphoric clauses in the conjunct order that conversely must be c-commanded or preceded by an element acting as an antecedent, and that are evaluated with respect to the situation specified by the antecedent. Chapter 5 considers the structural relationships between anaphoric clauses and their antecedents, arguing that CHAINED clauses are only governed by precedence (e.g. in the discourse), but adjoined and argument clauses can be c-commanded by their antecedent. Chapter 6 goes into the specifics of the distribution of different conjunct clauses in Plains Cree, for instance, determining which indicate a presupposition, or appear in the context of certain aspectual or modal properties. Chapter 7 briefly considers remaining questions, in particular what might be expected in other Algonquian languages, and concludes the book.
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