The Linearization of Affixes: Evidence from Nuu-Chah-Nulth

ISBN-13: 9781402065491 / Angielski / Twarda / 2008 / 238 str.

Wojdak, Rachel

Opis

This book is a revision of my doctoral dissertation, completed at the University of British Columbia in 2005. The members of my doctoral committee ? Henry Davis, Rose-Marie Dechaine, Martina Wiltschko ? were instrumental in shaping the content and presentation of this work, and I owe them my gratitude for their considerable input. As my supervisor, Henry gave me great latitude in this project, and his encouragement and enthusiasm made fieldwork all the more exciting. This final product would not have been nearly as strong without the benefit of Rose-Marie s sharp intuition and critiques, and I appreciate the memories I have of leaving meetings with her feeling absolutely invigorated. Martina always knew all the right questions to ask, and I came to count on her reliable feedback. It was an honour to be a part of the UBC linguistics department, and I thank all its members for their part in creating the lively environment I enjoyed for my years there. My greatest thanks are due to the speakers of Nuu-chah-nulth who shared with me their time, their humour, and their love for their language: Mary Jane Dick, Katherine Fraser, Carrie Little, Archie Thompson, Barbara Touchie, Barney Williams Jr., Barney Williams Sr., Christine Nicolaye, Sarah Webster. Their patience and dedication was humbling, and I am indebted to them for the chance they gave me to learn so much."

Spis treści

Chapter 1 Introduction. Introduction. Theoretical assumptions. Interface requirements. ‘Bottom-to-top’ syntactic derivation. Syntax ‘all the way down’. Linearization . Proposal: local spell-out. Alternative models for the timing of spell-out. Affixal predicates in Nuu-chah-nulth. Research context. Genetic affiliations. Previous literature. Overview of word structure in Nuu-chah-nulth. Methodology. Outline of the book.- Chapter 2 PF Incorporation. Introduction. Morpho-phonological dependency. Linearization is local. Iterativity. Modifier incorporation. Adjective incorporation. Adverbial incorporation. Coordinated objects. Insensitivity to syntactic category. Absence of LF effects. Discourse transparency. Absence of scopal effects. Opacity effects. Opaque DPs and the bare nominal requirement. Opaque CPs and ‘restructuring’ effects. Impermeability of saturated domains. Conclusion.- Chapter 3 Clausal architecture of Nuu-chah-nulth. Introduction. Linearization of syntactic terminals. A universal linearization scheme?. Directionality is determined at spell-out. Directionality conventions. Comparison to headedness ‘parameters’. Affixation patterns. Directionality conventions of Nuu-chah-nulth. Configurationality. Partial head marking. An asymmetry in possessor raising. An asymmetry in incorporation. Weak Crossover effects. Predicate-initial word order. Proposal: ‘Basic’ predicate-initial order (VOS). Evidence for right-branching specifiers. Evidence against verb-raising. Evidence against raising of verbal phrase. Implications for the linearization of affixal predicates. The ‘complement’ effect. Evidence against directionality of affixation. Cliticization domains. DP domain. CP domain. Conclusion.- Chapter 4 Nominal complements of affixal predicates. Introduction. Predication configurations. Basic structures. Transitivization. Flexibility in theta-role mapping. Predicate inventory. Unergatives are necessarily non-affixal.Unaccusatives. Incorporation. Intransitivity in Nuu-chah-nulth. Absence of unergative affixal predicates. ‘Long’ possessor raising as a diagnostic for unaccusativity. Transitives. Incorporation. Subject agreement. Possessor raising. Extended unaccusatives. Locatum predicates. Incorporation. Subject agreement. Possessor raising. Location predicates. Incorporation. Subject agreement. Possessor raising. Ditransitives. Locatum-type ditransitives. Location-type ditransitives. Serial verb affixation. Conclusion.- Chapter 5 Verbal complements of affixal predicates. Introduction. Two classes of ‘verb incorporating’ affixal predicates. Affixal main predicates. Affixal auxiliary predicates. Affixal auxiliaries are non-thematic. Rigid vs. alternating complementation. Ability to license a ‘mismatched’ subject. Citation forms. Summary. PF Incorporation occurs only in infinitival environments. Absence of clausal morphology. No tense. No person/mood agreement. No complementizer. Lack of clause-boundedness effects. ‘Long’ wh-movement. ‘Long’ possessor raising. ‘Long’ possessor raising with affixal auxiliaries. No ‘long’ possessor raising with affixal main predicates. Conclusion.- Chapter 6 Implications. Introduction. Summary. Theoretical implications. Spell-out is strictly interpretive. Comparison to ‘phasal’ spell-out. Variation in permeability of CP domains. The status of the vP domain. The head movement question. Linearization is purely phonological. Syntactic head movement is more complex. Local spell-out creates ‘outside-in’ dependencies. ‘Inside-out’ dependencies are not possible via local spell-out. Evidence from Kwakw’ala (Northern Wakashan). Affixation as primitive or derived. Typological implications. The typology of noun incorporation. The governing/restrictive hypothesis in Wakashan. Lexical suffixation as an areal feature of the Pacific Northwest. Conclusion.- References.- Appendix: Orthography.

Blurb

The linearization of syntactic constructs stands at the forefront of current research on the syntax-phonology interface. This book examines the problem of linearization from a new perspective: that of the linearization of affixes. The driving proposal of this book is that affixation provides a means of satisfying the universal requirement that linguistic outputs be linearized. This hypothesis is tested against extensive original data from Nuu-chah-nulth ("Nootka"; Wakashan family), an endangered Amerindian language remarkable for its complex morphology. This volume introduces typologically rare affixation effects to current theoretical debates surrounding the division of labour between the modules of the grammar.