Pseudo-Incorporation in Blackfoot

Bibliographic Data

ID4558779
AuthorsHoward Bli (0000-0001-6374-8049, University of Victoria, corresponding author), Heather Bli, Heather Bliss
Year2018
Volume84
Issue4
Pages441-470
Publication date2018-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of American Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-7071 • E-ISSN: 1545-7001
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/698853
OpenAlexW2889619584
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited23

Blackfoot (Algonquian: Alberta) permits both morphologically transitive and intransitive verbs to take objects, but with different syntactic properties. This paper develops an analysis of the objects of morphologically intransitive verbs as pseudo-incorporated, in the sense introduced by Diane Massam. Diagnostic tests for the syntax and semantics of pseudo-incorporation are applied to objects of morphologically intransitive verbs. Regarding their external syntax, it is shown that pseudo-incorporated objects must be immediately post-verbal and form a VP constituent with the verb. As for their semantic properties, they are shown to be narrow-scoping, non-specific, indefinite, and cumulative in reference. With respect to their internal syntax, it is demonstrated that they can be modified by attributive adjectives and/or inflectional plural marking, but crucially they cannot host demonstrative determiners. By documenting pseudo-incorporated objects in Blackfoot, this paper contributes to the cross-linguistic evidence that incorporation can target phrasal constituents

Attributive · Demonstrative · Linguistics · Natural language processing · Object (grammar · Plural · Programming language · Semantics (computer science · Syntax · Transitive relation · Verb · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Linguistics and Discourse Analysis · Mathematics · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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