Linguistics presentations (MU)
Permanent URI for this collection
Items in this collection are public presentations made by Linguistics Program faculty, staff, and students, either alone or as co-authors, and which may or may not have been published in an alternate format. Items may contain more than one file type.
Browse
Recent Submissions
Item Head Movement in Bantu DPs(2010) Carstens, VickiCarstens argues against the approach of Cinque (2005) to deriving facts of adjunct order related to Greenberg's Universal 20, based on Shona data. Some implications are that head-movement exists in grammar and has syntactic consequences; it is part of narrow syntax. For modifiers at least, order and hierarchy are distinct, and uFs need not be deactivated and deleted from the syntactic object bound for the Conceptual-Intentional interface, where material that isn't semantic is ignored (Epstein, Kitahara, & Seely 2010).Item Properties of Subjects in Bantu Languages(2010) Carstens, Vicki; Diercks, Michael; López, Luis, 1965-; Mletshe, Loyiso Kevin; Ndayiragije, Juvenal; Sikuku, JustineThis handout discusses how subject words function in various Bantu languages. Bantu languages are pro-drop, hence null subject languages (NSLs). Our initial findings are that preverbal subjects can, in fact, be non-specific indefinites (in at least Lubukusu and Kirundi). In Kirundi, expressions that are not licit in left-dislocated positions are fine as subjects. Person and tense/aspect influence the availability of inverse scope relations. Our preliminary conclusion is that at least some Bantu subjects are in Spec, TP; hence the nature of subject agreement in NSLs does not in general preclude subjects from occupying that position.Item DP Positions in African Languages(2010) Carstens, Vicki; Diercks, Michael; Mletshe, Loyiso Kevin; Ndayiragije, Juvenal; Sikuku, JustineA central concern of syntactic theory has long been to explain and predict the distribution of nominal expressions, henceforth D(eterminer) P(hrases), and their involvement in morphosyntactic relations. Where can they occur? When can they move, control agreement, and bear Case? The study of Indo-European (IE) languages has yielded strong generalizations upon which the theory is based. As we illustrate, a number of African languages in which such phenomena have been explored seem to turn these generalizations more or less on their heads. Our project seeks to determine and to explain the possibilities and limitations of DP positions, focusing primarily on Bantu languages. Some of the issues arise also in non-Bantu African languages including Igbo and Ibibio (see Ura 1998 on Igbo hyper-raising, = raising from tensed clauses; Baker and Willie 2010 on Ibibio multiple agreement), and we hope the project can be extended to them as well.