Morphosemantic features in Universal Grammar
What we can learn from Marshallese pronouns and demonstratives
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20260329 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Elizabeth Cowper (0000-0002-1335-4321, University of Toronto, corresponding author), Daniel Currie Hall (0000-0002-5831-6679, Saint Mary's University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 67 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 242-266 |
| Publication date | 2022-09-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Canadian Journal of Linguistics / La revue canadienne de linguistique (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0008-4131 • E-ISSN: 1710-1115 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/cnj.2022.25 |
| OpenAlex | W4282980165 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 18 |
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 time. The element $\chi$ , which derives person orientation in demonstratives and pronouns, does not universally map to the same syntactic position. While in Heiltsuk $\chi$ is a dependent of the person head, in Marshallese it heads a projection above the person head. And while in Heiltsuk the person features occupy the same position in both pronouns and demonstratives, Marshallese pronouns have a different structure, with person and number features mapping to a single syntactic head. The contribution of UG is thus not a set of specific features or specific structures, but a set of more abstract principles
Constraint (computer-aided design) · Feature (linguistics) · Grammar · Head (geology) · Linguistics · Personal pronoun · Set (abstract data type) · Subject (documents) · Computer Science · Linguistics and Discourse Analysis · Mathematics · Natural Language Processing Techniques · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation
Number
The Morphosyntax of Gender
Impossible Persons
Person and deixis in Heiltsuk pronouns
The syntax of non-inflectional plural marking
The location of gender features in the syntax
The rise of contrastive modality in English
ɸ-Features at the Syntax-Semantics Interface
Gender at the Edge
Head Movement in Linguistic Theory
Movement Operations after Syntax
Paucity, abundance, and the theory of number
| Citations per year | 0.33 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2023 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |