Rose-Marie Déchaine will present joint work with Nathan Brinklow, Monique Dufresne and Greg Lessard at a research seminar.
The event will be held via Zoom: https://ubc.zoom.us/j/64763345823?pwd=WDNNOXJYN3dOcUhjeTRiZ2VqaU9PUT09. The passcode is 635410. (The meeting ID is 647 6334 5823.).
Abstract:
This presentation reports on collaborative work on Kanyen’kéha (Mohawk), a northern Iroquoian language spoken in Ontario, Québec, and upstate New York. We explore the syntactic properties of the “left-edge” prefixes (traditionally called pre-prefixes) which occur at the left margin of the verb complex. We argue that:
(i) pre-prefixes sub-divide into two classes according to whether they realize C.FORCE or C.FINITENESS;
(ii) C.FORCE contrasts are polarity sensitive, and so have different realizations according to whether the clause is affirmative (or more specifically assertive) or negative.
(iii) C.FINITENESS prefixes condition the realization of suffixal aspectual marking at the right-edge of the verb complex;
(iv) AspP constitutes a phase, and is the locus of grammatical agreement;
(v) C.FORCE, C.FINITENESS, and Asp participate in scalar contrasts;
More generally, our analysis leads to the conclusion that:
- morphologically, paradigms are emergent;
- semantically, scalar logic is pervasive (in Kanyen’kéha, and arguably in all languages);
- syntactically, locality of selection allows us to detect the pervasiveness of scalar logic.
