This paper presents a detailed description and formal semantic analysis of habitual sentences in Tlingit (Na-Dene; Alaska, British Columbia, Yukon). As in many other languages (Carlson 2005, 2012), there are two means in Tlingit for expressing a habitual statement, such as my father eats salmon. The first employs a relatively unmarked verb, realizing imperfective aspect. In the second type of habitual sentence, however, the verb bears special habitual morphology. Although there is a significant overlap in the use of these constructions, certain semantic contrasts do exist. Most notably, the special habitual marking cannot be used to express pure, unrealized dispositions/functions/duties (e.g., Mary handles any mail from Antarctica). In other words, Tlingit habitual morphology - unlike imperfective aspect - requires the habituality in question to have actually occurred, an effect that has also observed for habitual morphology in a variety of other, unrelated languages (Green 2000, Bittner 2008, Boneh & Doron 2008, Filip 2018). I develop and defend a formal semantic analysis that captures these (and other) contrasts between imperfective and habitual verbs. In brief, imperfective aspect is argued to possess a modal semantics, quantifying over alternative worlds/situations (Arregui et al. 2014, Ferreira 2016). Habitual morphology, however, is argued to be associated with a (potentially covert) quantificational adverb, one that quantifies strictly over times in the actual world. The consequences of this account for the analysis of habitual sentences in other languages are explored. Most notably, we find that (i) "habituality " so-called is potentially a heterogeneous phenomenon, and resists unified definition or semantic analysis, and (ii) therefore is a sui generis category of phenomena, which cannot be reduced as an instance of aspect or modality (Filip & Carlson 1997, Filip 2018).

This paper develops and defends a semantic/syntactic analysis of a curious set of negative gradable predicates in the Tlingit language, and shows that the analysis has some important consequences concerning the range of crosslinguistic variation in degree constructions. In Tlingit, certain negative gradable predicates are formed by negating a positive root and then applying an additional morphological operation: e.g. k’éi ‘good’, tlél ukʼé ‘not good’, tlél ushké ‘bad’. I show that (i) the negation in forms like tlél ushké ‘bad’ is VP-external, clausal negation, and is not an incorporated negation like English un -; and (ii) the meaning of these forms is indeed that of a gradable negative predicate, rather than the propositional negation of the positive predicate (cf. tlél ukʼé ‘not good’). Under the proposed analysis, the additional morphological operation observed in these forms is the reflex of a special degree relativizer, one that must undergo movement to Spec-NegP. In addition, Tlingit differs from English and other languages in that degree operators—like POS and comparative operators—can be attached high in the clause, above sentential negation. In addition to capturing various facts concerning these negative predicates, the proposed analysis raises some novel puzzles concerning intervention effects in the movement of degree operators, and provides support for the view that negative predicates like bad are morphosyntactically derived from positive predicates like good .

This paper provides an in-depth description of the expression of modal categories in Tlingit (Na-Dene; Alaska). Epistemic, deontic, and circumstantial modal statements are examined, and for each I examine statements with strong and weak modal force. A notable feature of the Tlingit system is thatrelative to other languages of the Pacific NorthwestTlingit exhibits a striking paucity of grammaticalized modal expressions, and only a limited subset of the aforementioned modal categories can be expressed by the conventionalized, truth-conditional semantics of a statement. Nevertheless, speakers employ a variety of pragmatic strategies to communicate information about other modal categories. This situation is rather similar to that reported for Nez Perce, but different from cases such as St'at'imcets or Washo, in which modals exhibit a context-dependent meaning, allowing for a small set to denote all logically possible modal categories.

In many languages, past-marking on stative predicates has been reported to trigger an inference of ‘cessation,’ that the past state in question does not hold at the present (Altshuler and Schwarzschild 2013, 2014). In English and many other languages, this inference can be shown to be defeasible, and so is therefore non-semantic. However, in other languages—such as the Tlingit language (Na-Dene; Alaska, British Columbia, Yukon)—the cessation inference of past-marked statives cannot be cancelled in the same way. This has lead some to propose that in these latter languages, the cessation inference is semantic, and is lexically encoded into the meaning of the past marker (Leer 1991; Copley 2005). Such a view would, of course, broaden the range of semantic tenses that exist in the world’s languages, to include a sub-category some have dubbed ‘Discontinuous Past’ (Plungian and van der Auwera 2006). Through in-depth investigation of one such putative ‘discontinuous past’ marker in the Tlingit language, I argue that—to the contrary—these morphemes are in their lexical semantics simply (plain) past tenses. On the basis of original field data I show that—while the cessation inferences of Tlingit are different from English-style ‘cessation implicatures’—they are nevertheless still defeasible, and so non-semantic. I develop an account of the cessation inference in Tlingit, whereby it arises from the optionality of the past-tense marker in question. I argue that this account should be extended to all putative instances of ‘Discontinuous Past,’ since it would capture the fact that putative cases of ‘Discontinuous Past’ only ever arise in optional tense languages.

This article develops a formal semantic and syntactic analysis of distributive numerals in Tlingit, a highly endangered language of Alaska, British Columbia, and the Yukon. Such numerals enforce a ‘distributive reading’ of the sentence, and thus are one instance of the broader phenomenon of ‘distance distributivity’ (Zimmermann 2002). As in many other languages, a Tlingit sentence containing a distributive numeral can describe two distinct kinds of ‘distributive scenarios’: (i) a scenario where the distribution is over some plural entity (e.g. ‘My sons caught three fish each’), and (ii) one where the distribution is over some plural event (e.g. ‘My sons caught three fish each time’) (Gil 1982, Choe 1987, Zimmermann 2002, Oh 2005). Despite this apparent ambiguity, I put forth a univocal semantics for Tlingit distributive numerals, one whereby they consistently invoke quantification over events. Under this semantics, the ability of distributive numerals to describe both kinds of scenarios in (i) and (ii) is due not to an ambiguity, but instead to the sentences having relatively weak truth conditions. In contrast to prior analyses of distributive numerals and distance distributivity, the proposed semantics does not actually make use of distributive operators, but nevertheless retains a rather conservative picture of the syntax-semantics interface. The analysis can also account for certain locality effects noted for distance distributives in Korean and German (Zimmermann 2002, Oh 2005), as well as an intriguing puzzle regarding distributive numerals and pluractionality in Kaqchikel (Henderson 2011). Finally, I show how the analysis can be extended to the well-known case of English ‘binominal each’.

The term ‘pied-piping’ is used by linguists to refer to structures where a movement operation applies to a constituent that is in some sense ‘larger than expected’. More precisely, pied-piping occurs when a movement operation that usually targets expressions of a particular type (e.g. wh-words) instead targets a phrase that contains an expression of that type. Pied-piping structures have long been a deep and difficult puzzle for formal syntactic theory. This is the second of two articles that present and compare two recent approaches to pied-piping, those of Heck (2008, 2009) and Cable (2010a,b). These works offer two very different perspectives on the nature of pied-piping, and thus yield rather different analyses of specific sub-phenomena. Nevertheless, there is much overlap in their general predictions and in several core assumptions. In this article, I compare the empirical predictions of Heck’s and Cable’s accounts, noting especially those areas where both approaches are challenged. The phenomena we will examine include (i) the locality constraints on pied-piping, (ii) Heck’s ‘Edge Generalization’, (iii) the apparent optionality of some pied-piping structures, and (iv) so-called ‘massive pied-piping’.

In recent years, our understanding of how tense systems vary across languages has been greatly advanced by formal semantic study of languages exhibiting fewer tense categories than the three commonly found in European languages. However, it has also often been reported that languages can sometimes distinguish more than three tenses. Such languages appear to have ‘graded tense’ systems, where the tense morphology serves to track how far into the past or future a reported event occurs. This paper presents a formal semantic analysis of the tense-aspect system of Gĩkũyũ (Kikuyu), a Northeastern Bantu language of Kenya. Like many languages of the Bantu family, Gĩkũyũ appears to exhibit a graded tense system, wherein four grades of past tense and three grades of future tense are distinguished. I argue that the prefixes traditionally labeled as ‘tenses’ in Gĩkũyũ exhibit important differences from (and similarities to) tenses in languages like English. Although, like tenses in English, these ‘temporal remoteness prefixes’ in Gĩkũyũ introduce presuppositions regarding a temporal parameter of the clause, in Gĩkũyũ these presuppositions concern the ‘event time’ of the clause directly, rather than the ‘topic time’. Consequently, the key difference between Gĩkũyũ and languages like English lies not in how many tenses are distinguished, but in whether tense-like features are able to modify other, lower verbal functional projections in the clause.

This paper argues that the relatively free position of subjects in Dholuo (Nilo-Saharan; Kenya, Tanzania) provides remarkably clear evidence that the specifier positions of preverbal functional projections in the language need not be filled. In this sense, the language provides direct evidence for a strong parameterization of the classic EPP (or equivalent conditions), one that allows the existence of languages where no DP need occupy the specifier position of any verbal functional projection at any level of representation. Furthermore, it is shown that the optionality seen in subject raising extends to other movement types of the language, including wh-movement. This suggests a picture where the presence of an ‘EPP-feature’ Chomsky (2000) on a given functional head is systematically optional in the language. Finally, it is argued that the existence of a limited set of environments where subject raising is obligatory provides support for the theory of Agreement locality put forth by Bobaljik and Wurmbrand (2005).

The term 'pied-piping' is used by linguists to refer to structures where a movement operation applies to a constituent that is in some sense 'larger than expected'. More precisely, pied-piping occurs when a movement operation that usually targets expressions of a particular type (e.g. wh-words) instead targets a phrase that contains an expression of that type. Pied-piping structures have long been a deep and difficult puzzle for formal syntactic theory. This is the first of two articles that present and compare two recent approaches to pied-piping, those of Cable (2010a,b) and Heck (2008, 2009). These works offer two very different perspectives on the nature of pied-piping, and thus yield rather different analyses of specific sub-phenomena. Nevertheless, there is much overlap in their general predictions and in several core assumptions. In this article, I present the basic phenomenon of pied-piping, as well as general summaries of Cable (2010a,b) and Heck (2008, 2009). I also explain why these works eschew the mechanism of 'feature percolation', an operation which has until recently been a staple of much work on pied-piping.

In many languages, reflexively marked predicates with plural arguments can describe scenarios of reciprocal action (Evans 2008; Maslova 2008; Murray 2007, 2008; Nedjalkov 2007). This paper analyzes such cases, and shows that they can be given a rather simple, univocal analysis, one that follows from certain now-commonplace assumptions in the semantic theory of plurals and events (Krifka 1992; Kratzer 2003, 2008). In addition, I analyze the effect that so-called 'intensifiers' have upon the interpretation of reflexively marked predicates in these languages. Such intensifiers are often said to 'disambiguate' the sentence, only allowing it to describe cases of distributive reflexive action (Gast & Haas 2008, Heine & Miyashita 2008, Wiemer 2007). This is shown to be only partly true, as there are contexts where such sentences can also describe reciprocal action. I demonstrate that all the key interactions here follow from a few basic assumptions concerning the semantics of focus.

January 01 2011 A New Argument for Lexical Decomposition: Transparent Readings of Verbs In Special Collection: CogNet Seth Cable Seth Cable University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Seth Cable University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Online ISSN: 1530-9150 Print ISSN: 0024-3892 © 2011 Massachusetts Institute of Technology2011 Linguistic Inquiry (2011) 42 (1): 131–138. https://doi.org/10.1162/LING_a_00031 Cite Icon Cite Permissions Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Search Site Citation Seth Cable; A New Argument for Lexical Decomposition: Transparent Readings of Verbs. Linguistic Inquiry 2011; 42 (1): 131–138. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/LING_a_00031 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAll JournalsLinguistic Inquiry Search Advanced Search © 2011 Massachusetts Institute of Technology2011 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

This book puts forth a novel syntactic and semantic analysis of wh-questions based upon in-depth study of the Tlingit language, an endangered and under-documented language of North America. A major consequence of this new approach is that the phenomenon classically dubbed pied-piping does not actually exist. The book begins by arguing that wh-fronting in Tlingit does not involve a syntactic relationship between interrogative C and the wh-word. Rather, it involves a probe/Agree relation between C and an overt ‘Q-particle’ (or ‘Q’) c-commanding the wh-word. Fronting of the wh-word in Tlingit is thus a mere by-product of fronting the QP projected by this Q. Given the strong similarity between the wh-constructions of Tlingit and those of more widely studied languages, this ‘Q-based’ analysis is applied to a range of other languages. Regarding so-called pied-piping structures, the Q-based theory provides an analysis in which the very concept of ‘pied-piping’ is eliminated from the theory of grammar. Furthermore, the account provides an especially minimal semantics for pied-piping structures, in which no mechanisms are needed beyond those required for simple wh-questions. Finally, the Q-based theory is able to capture certain constraints on pied-piping, as well as aspects of its variation across languages. Beyond its treatment of pied-piping, the Q-based theory also yields a novel syntax and semantics for multiple wh-questions that ties the presence of Superiority Effects to the absence of Intervention Effects. Furthermore, the account predicts a previously unnoticed Intervention Effect in English pied-piping structures. Finally, the Q-based theory provides a novel account of the ill-formedness of P-stranding and left branch extractions in many of the world’s languages.

I argue that pied-piping, as traditionally understood, might not exist. I reanalyze classic examples from English and other well-studied languages in light of new data from Tlingit, an understudied and endangered language of Alaska. I argue that the initial appearance of piedpiping in Tlingit is misleading and actually reflects structures where no true pied-piping occurs. I then show that a similar analysis is possible for putative cases of pied-piping in other, well-known languages. Consequently, both the phenomenon of pied-piping and the grammatical mechanisms introduced to derive it might be eliminable from the theory of grammar.

This paper examines a construction in Lhasa Tibetan that might be identified as a 'correlative'. I first argue that the construction is indeed best analyzed as a correlative (rather than as a simple conditional). I then explore the syntax of the construction in further detail, particularly the relationship between its key components: the subordinate clause and the demonstrative phrase. Given the properties of this relationship, I argue that the Tibetan correlative is three-way ambiguous structurally, i.e., that Tibetan grammar derives the surface construction in three different possible ways. This provides an interesting contrast with the correlative found in Hindi (Bhatt 2003), and I propose that this may be related to the absence of 'phi-agreement' in the pronouns of Tibetan.

April 01 2009 Expressives and Identity Conditions Christopher Potts, Christopher Potts Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Ash Asudeh, Ash Asudeh Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Seth Cable, Seth Cable Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Yurie Hara, Yurie Hara Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Eric McCready, Eric McCready Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Luis Alonso-Ovalle, Luis Alonso-Ovalle Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Rajesh Bhatt, Rajesh Bhatt Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Christopher Davis, Christopher Davis Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Angelika Kratzer, Angelika Kratzer Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Tom Roeper, Tom Roeper Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Martin Walkow Martin Walkow Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Christopher Potts Ash Asudeh Seth Cable Yurie Hara Eric McCready Luis Alonso-Ovalle Rajesh Bhatt Christopher Davis Angelika Kratzer Tom Roeper Martin Walkow Online Issn: 1530-9150 Print Issn: 0024-3892 © 2009 Massachusetts Institute of Technology2009 Linguistic Inquiry (2009) 40 (2): 356–366. https://doi.org/10.1162/ling.2009.40.2.356 Cite Icon Cite Permissions Share Icon Share MailTo Twitter LinkedIn Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Search Site Citation Christopher Potts, Ash Asudeh, Seth Cable, Yurie Hara, Eric McCready, Luis Alonso-Ovalle, Rajesh Bhatt, Christopher Davis, Angelika Kratzer, Tom Roeper, Martin Walkow; Expressives and Identity Conditions. Linguistic Inquiry 2009; 40 (2): 356–366. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/ling.2009.40.2.356 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAll JournalsLinguistic Inquiry Search Advanced Search This content is only available as a PDF. © 2009 Massachusetts Institute of Technology2009 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Section 2, whereby subordinate topic timescan be abstracted over. (iii),Demonstrates that the amended,system,can capture various basic facts regarding SOT phenomena.