A set-based semantics for person, obviation, and animacy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11113028 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Christopher Hammerly (0000-0001-8270-5773, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 99 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 38-80 |
| Publication date | 2023-03-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Language (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0097-8507 • E-ISSN: 1535-0665 |
| Publisher | Project MUSE (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1353/lan.2023.0005 |
| OpenAlex | W4327862694 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
This article provides a general analysis of the semantics of person, broadly construed, through a case study of Ojibwe (Central Algonquian). Ojibwe shows person-like distinctions based on whether an entity is living or nonliving (i.e. animacy) and, within living things, whether a being is prominent or backgrounded in the discourse (i.e. obviation). The central principle of the account is contrast: the activation and interpretation of a feature is driven by the requirement that it makes a cut to derive the proper categories within a given inventory. With this principle, I show that a small set of bivalent features denoting first-order predicates can capture Ojibwe as well as a wider typology of person, animacy, obviation, and noun classification distinctions
Animacy · Feature (linguistics) · Interpretation (philosophy) · Lexicon · Linguistics · Natural language processing · Noun · Semantics (computer science) · Set (abstract data type) · Sociology · Typology · Artificial Intelligence · Categorization, perception, and language · Computer Science · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation
| Citations per year | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |