Doctoral student Ana Arrieta Zamudio and professor Ryan Bochnak will present an in-person research seminar.
Actuality entailments in Ktunaxa
Abstract: An actuality entailment (AE) occurs when the combination of an ability modal with certain aspects entails that the event described in the modal’s prejacent took place in the actual world. Cross-linguistically, the combination of an ability modal with a perfective aspect results in an AE, while combination with an imperfective aspect does not. We examine the distribution of AEs in Ktunaxa with the ability modal taⱡ, and we show that the Ktunaxa data pose two challenges to existing analyses of AEs. The first is that AEs arise in Ktunaxa when taⱡ combines with the aspect siⱡ, which in previous descriptions is analyzed as a progressive (i.e., imperfective) aspect. The second involves data that have been central to recent analyses of AEs as involving aspectual coercion, where we find that such data does not obtain in Ktunaxa, casting doubt on such an analysis for Ktunaxa. We address the first challenge by re-analyzing siⱡ as an inchoative perfect, and we respond to the second challenge by arguing for an analysis whereby AEs are obviated in the presence of an extra layer of modality.
