Elizabeth Cowper
Biographic Data
| ID | 1013326 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Elizabeth Cowper |
| GIVEN NAMES | Elizabeth |
| FAMILY NAME | Cowper |
| SIGNATURE | COWPER E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Toronto |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1335-4321 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 48 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 14 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1979 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Morphosemantic features in Universal Grammar
This article analyzes Marshallese pronouns and demonstratives, arguing that both privative and binary morphosemantic features are necessary, and that the two types coexist in a single domain. Marshallese encodes number with atomic , and person with [ $\pm$ author] and [ $\pm$ participant]. In the complex system of Marshallese demonstratives, atomic and [ $\pm$ human] map to the same head, subject to a constraint that only one feature appears at a…
Gender diversity and morphosyntax
As one of the primary means of constructing gendered identities, language is a matter of central concern to transgender people (Zimman 2018). In this paper, we present an analysis of non-binary singular they; that is, they as used to refer to individuals whose gender identity is not, or is not exclusively, masculine or feminine. Despite singular they’s widespread usage and long history in English, not all speakers judge this most recent innovatio…
Person and deixis in Heiltsuk pronouns
Harbour (2016) argues for a parsimonious universal set of features for grammatical person distinctions, and suggests (ch. 7) that the same features may also form the basis for systems of deixis. We apply this proposal to an analysis of Heiltsuk, a Wakashan language with a particularly rich set of person-based deictic contrasts (Rath 1981). Heiltsuk demonstratives and third-person pronominal enclitics distinguish proximal-to-speaker, proximal-to-a…
The rise of contrastive modality in English
This paper proposes an account of the morphosyntactic and semantic changes involved in the historical development of the English modals as a distinct category. Adopting a neoparametric approach, in which a language's inventory of grammatical features may change over time, we show that a cluster of related surface changes can be accounted for by positing that the featuremodalitywas added to English tense/mood system. While the most immediate manif…
Early spears as thrusting weapons
Possession and necessity
A Note on Number
July 01 2005 A Note on Number In Special Collection: CogNet Elizabeth Cowper Elizabeth Cowper University of Toronto Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Elizabeth Cowper University of Toronto Online Issn: 1530-9150 Print Issn: 0024-3892 © 2005 Massachusetts Institute of Technology2005 Linguistic Inquiry (2005) 36 (3): 441–455. https://doi.org/10.1162/0024389054396935 Cite Icon Cite Perm…
The Geometry of Interpretable Features
This article proposes a feature-geometric analysis of the interpretable features of Infl, using MINIMALIST syntax and DISTRIBUTED MORPHOLOGY . A small universal set of monovalent interpretable features and a set of entailment relations among them provide the basis for a principled account of the tense systems of English and Spanish. While each feature, each lexical item, and each vocabulary item has a unified representation, surface polysemy is s…
Grammatical aspect in English
This paper proposes a theory of grammatical aspect based on the Davidsonian event-place e. Eventive sentences are shown to include e, while stative sentences lack e. Parsons' (1990) arguments for an analogous element in stative sentences are shown to be incorrect. The appearance of e is shown to be independent of the choice of verb, transitivity, object case-marking and telicity. It is thus argued to project independently in the syntax. The inter…
English Participle Constructions
This article provides an analysis of participial constructions in English, within the feature-checking approach to inflectional morphology. It argues for a unified treatment of the perfect, passive and adjectival uses of the past participle, involving a monosemous inflectional head checking a monosemous affix. There are two classes of constructions with - ing , each of which is given a unified treatment. The analysis requires the assumption that …
Infinitival Complements of Have
This paper provides a syntactic and semantic analysis of sentences such as those in (1). (1) a. Mary has to leave early. b. I have a paper to write/a dress to wear. c. Mary has only/but to call, and Fred comes running. d. We have yet to figure out why the car won’t start
Pied Piping, Feature Percolation and the Structure of the Noun Phrase
Ross (1967) showed that in relative clauses, not only may the WH-phrase be fronted, but an NP or PP containing the WH-phrase may also be fronted, as shown in (1): (1) a. This is the child [who] i I’ve been hearing stories about t i . b. This is the child [about whom] i I’ve been hearing stories t i . c. This is the child [stories about whom] i I’ve been hearing t i . Ross called this phenomenon “pied piping”. His statement of the pied piping conv…
Are phonosyntactic rules necessary
Selkirk (1986) proposes that rules of the phrasal phonology apply to a structure called P-structure that is derived from, but not isomorphic to, syntactic structure. While Selkirk claims that most rules of external sandhi fall into the category of P-structure rules, there are three rules that she suggests may still require direct reference to syntactic structure. These are Mende Consonant Mutation (Conteh et al. 1986), Kimatuumbi Vowel Shortening…
Missing Np’s in Japanese
The following four sentences illustrate the phenomenon which, for convenience, we shall call Missing NP’s in Japanese: The variation in the possible referents for Δ must be accounted for, whether Δ arises by a rule deleting NP’s, or is present in deep structure and interpreted by a rule of coreference assignment
Early spears as thrusting weapons
The Geometry of Interpretable Features
This article proposes a feature-geometric analysis of the interpretable features of Infl, using MINIMALIST syntax and DISTRIBUTED MORPHOLOGY . A small universal set of monovalent interpretable features and a set of entailment relations among them provide the basis for a principled account of the tense systems of English and Spanish. While each feature, each lexical item, and each vocabulary item has a unified representation, surface polysemy is s…
A Note on Number
July 01 2005 A Note on Number In Special Collection: CogNet Elizabeth Cowper Elizabeth Cowper University of Toronto Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Elizabeth Cowper University of Toronto Online Issn: 1530-9150 Print Issn: 0024-3892 © 2005 Massachusetts Institute of Technology2005 Linguistic Inquiry (2005) 36 (3): 441–455. https://doi.org/10.1162/0024389054396935 Cite Icon Cite Perm…
Are phonosyntactic rules necessary
Selkirk (1986) proposes that rules of the phrasal phonology apply to a structure called P-structure that is derived from, but not isomorphic to, syntactic structure. While Selkirk claims that most rules of external sandhi fall into the category of P-structure rules, there are three rules that she suggests may still require direct reference to syntactic structure. These are Mende Consonant Mutation (Conteh et al. 1986), Kimatuumbi Vowel Shortening…
Possession and necessity
Missing Np’s in Japanese
The following four sentences illustrate the phenomenon which, for convenience, we shall call Missing NP’s in Japanese: The variation in the possible referents for Δ must be accounted for, whether Δ arises by a rule deleting NP’s, or is present in deep structure and interpreted by a rule of coreference assignment
Pied Piping, Feature Percolation and the Structure of the Noun Phrase
Ross (1967) showed that in relative clauses, not only may the WH-phrase be fronted, but an NP or PP containing the WH-phrase may also be fronted, as shown in (1): (1) a. This is the child [who] i I’ve been hearing stories about t i . b. This is the child [about whom] i I’ve been hearing stories t i . c. This is the child [stories about whom] i I’ve been hearing t i . Ross called this phenomenon “pied piping”. His statement of the pied piping conv…
Are phonosyntactic rules necessary
Selkirk (1986) proposes that rules of the phrasal phonology apply to a structure called P-structure that is derived from, but not isomorphic to, syntactic structure. While Selkirk claims that most rules of external sandhi fall into the category of P-structure rules, there are three rules that she suggests may still require direct reference to syntactic structure. These are Mende Consonant Mutation (Conteh et al. 1986), Kimatuumbi Vowel Shortening…
Infinitival Complements of Have
This paper provides a syntactic and semantic analysis of sentences such as those in (1). (1) a. Mary has to leave early. b. I have a paper to write/a dress to wear. c. Mary has only/but to call, and Fred comes running. d. We have yet to figure out why the car won’t start
English Participle Constructions
This article provides an analysis of participial constructions in English, within the feature-checking approach to inflectional morphology. It argues for a unified treatment of the perfect, passive and adjectival uses of the past participle, involving a monosemous inflectional head checking a monosemous affix. There are two classes of constructions with - ing , each of which is given a unified treatment. The analysis requires the assumption that …
Grammatical aspect in English
This paper proposes a theory of grammatical aspect based on the Davidsonian event-place e. Eventive sentences are shown to include e, while stative sentences lack e. Parsons' (1990) arguments for an analogous element in stative sentences are shown to be incorrect. The appearance of e is shown to be independent of the choice of verb, transitivity, object case-marking and telicity. It is thus argued to project independently in the syntax. The inter…
A Note on Number
July 01 2005 A Note on Number In Special Collection: CogNet Elizabeth Cowper Elizabeth Cowper University of Toronto Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Elizabeth Cowper University of Toronto Online Issn: 1530-9150 Print Issn: 0024-3892 © 2005 Massachusetts Institute of Technology2005 Linguistic Inquiry (2005) 36 (3): 441–455. https://doi.org/10.1162/0024389054396935 Cite Icon Cite Perm…
The Geometry of Interpretable Features
This article proposes a feature-geometric analysis of the interpretable features of Infl, using MINIMALIST syntax and DISTRIBUTED MORPHOLOGY . A small universal set of monovalent interpretable features and a set of entailment relations among them provide the basis for a principled account of the tense systems of English and Spanish. While each feature, each lexical item, and each vocabulary item has a unified representation, surface polysemy is s…
Early spears as thrusting weapons
Possession and necessity
The rise of contrastive modality in English
This paper proposes an account of the morphosyntactic and semantic changes involved in the historical development of the English modals as a distinct category. Adopting a neoparametric approach, in which a language's inventory of grammatical features may change over time, we show that a cluster of related surface changes can be accounted for by positing that the featuremodalitywas added to English tense/mood system. While the most immediate manif…
Person and deixis in Heiltsuk pronouns
Harbour (2016) argues for a parsimonious universal set of features for grammatical person distinctions, and suggests (ch. 7) that the same features may also form the basis for systems of deixis. We apply this proposal to an analysis of Heiltsuk, a Wakashan language with a particularly rich set of person-based deictic contrasts (Rath 1981). Heiltsuk demonstratives and third-person pronominal enclitics distinguish proximal-to-speaker, proximal-to-a…
Gender diversity and morphosyntax
As one of the primary means of constructing gendered identities, language is a matter of central concern to transgender people (Zimman 2018). In this paper, we present an analysis of non-binary singular they; that is, they as used to refer to individuals whose gender identity is not, or is not exclusively, masculine or feminine. Despite singular they’s widespread usage and long history in English, not all speakers judge this most recent innovatio…
Morphosemantic features in Universal Grammar
This article analyzes Marshallese pronouns and demonstratives, arguing that both privative and binary morphosemantic features are necessary, and that the two types coexist in a single domain. Marshallese encodes number with atomic , and person with [ $\pm$ author] and [ $\pm$ participant]. In the complex system of Marshallese demonstratives, atomic and [ $\pm$ human] map to the same head, subject to a constraint that only one feature appears at a…
Computer Science (12 works) · Linguistics (12 works) · Philosophy (11 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (11 works) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (6 works) · Mathematics (6 works) · Natural Language Processing Techniques (5 works) · Artificial Intelligence (4 works) · Feature (linguistics) (4 works) · Physics (4 works)