A set-based semantics for person, obviation, and animacy
- 1 March 2023
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Project MUSE in Language
- Vol. 99 (1), 38-80
- https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2023.0005
Abstract
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.Keywords
This publication has 11 references indexed in Scilit:
- Feature GluttonyLinguistic Inquiry, 2021
- Taking case out of the Person-Case ConstraintNatural Language & Linguistic Theory, 2019
- Inverse marking and Multiple Agree in AlgonquinNatural Language & Linguistic Theory, 2018
- The rise of contrastive modality in EnglishLinguistic Variation, 2017
- Agreement and Its FailuresPublished by MIT Press ,2014
- Gender in Amharic: a morphosyntactic approach to natural and grammatical genderLanguage Sciences, 2014
- Prominence HierarchiesLanguage and Linguistics Compass, 2012
- The Relation of Switch-Reference, Animacy, and Obviation in Plains CreeInternational Journal of American Linguistics, 2012
- Multiple agree with clitics: person complementarity vs. omnivorous numberNatural Language & Linguistic Theory, 2011
- Missing persons: A case study in morphological universalsThe Linguistic Review, 2008