Missing persons
A case study in morphological universals
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20344201 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jonathan David Bobaljik (0000-0002-7897-1857, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue | 1-2 |
| Publication date | 2008-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Linguistic Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0167-6318 • E-ISSN: 1613-3676 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1515/tlir.2008.005 |
| OpenAlex | W2007272089 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 32 |
| References cited | 18 |
This article offers a case study of three absolute universals ranging over inventories of person marking in morphology. Certain logically possible distinctions are never drawn in morpheme inventories (either as pronouns or as agreement markers), though these distinctions may be expressed in other ways (and hence are not impossible a priori or for reasons of general cognition). After reviewing the literature, and dismissing apparent counter-examples, I submit that these universals bear on issues of formal versus functional explanation in linguistics, and suggest that the functionalist explanations of these facts currently on offer fall short of the mark. At least in this domain, it appears that there is a universal inventory of features which delimits the range of possible "persons" in language
Cognition · Cognitive linguistics · Epistemology · Linguistic universal · Linguistics · Morpheme · Problem of universals · Theoretical linguistics · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Linguistics and Discourse Analysis · Philosophy · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation
A case for a binary feature underlying clusivity
Investigations on markedness, syncretism and zero exponence in morphology
De se or not de se
Context-linked grammar
Separating interlocutor phenomena from grammatical person
The role of morphological markedness in inclusive/exclusive pronouns
Valuation as deletion
Cophonologies by Ph(r)ase
Universals in semantics
“We Olaf”
Two is better than one
Two types of the 3rd person feature in English
Response to Commentaries
On binary features and disagreeing natural classes
On the question of linguistic universals
What 'you' and 'I' mean to each other
On the role of person in the mapping of syntactic features onto their interpretable counterparts
Demonstrative-reinforcer constructions and the syntactic role of deictic features
Person of Interest
Noncanonical Obligatory Control
Argument-introducing pluractionals
Resilient Subject Agreement Morpho-Syntax in the Germanic Romance Contact Area
Category-Sensitive Escape from Islands in Limbum and Asante Twi
Syncretism in Dutch dialects
The expression of person and number
The penumbra of morphosyntactic feature systems
Person and number syncretisms in Dutch
Investigations on mixed agreement
Nonobligatory Control with Communication Verbs
Person-Number Interaction
On apparent pronominal feature contradictions
(Un)common denominators in research on emotion language
Clusivity
The Paradigmatic Structure Of Person Marking
Sign Language and Linguistic Universals
Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics
The Category of Person in Language
Greenberg on the first person inclusive dual
On a metalanguage for pronominal systems
A semantic analysis of associative plurals
The representation of third person and its consequences for person-case effects
A Grammar of Formal Written Japanese
Universals of Human Language, III
Problemes de linguistique generale
The First Person Inclusive Dual as an Ambiguous Category
Ilocano Dictionary and Grammar
Sierra Popoluca Morphology
Three Analyses of the Ilocano Pronoun System
On Markedness Asymmetries in Person and Number
Person and Number in Pronouns
| Unique citing works | 32 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,78 |
| Citation span | 2008 - 2026 (19) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 23 |